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TBOSG Black-necked Grebe
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Found by Dick Reader. |
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FIELD NOTES
On the evening of Thursday 24th October 1996 while walking past the small jetty at New Passage, I saw a small, basically 'black & white' grebe about 150 yards out on the river, drifting upstream on the incoming tide. Realising that this Black-necked Grebe was a first for Severnside, and with Brian Lancastle on Scilly’s for 'teachers week' I tried to phone Paul Bowerman, but all I kept getting was his voice mail service (he was at a fun fair at Cribbs Causeway apparently, and could not hear his phone ringing !!) after leaving several 'impolite' messages, I phoned the news to 'Flick Dilby’s' pager service hoping that Paul would hear, or feel, his pager going off! That did the trick and a few minutes later he arrived at New Passage, looking a bit shaky on his feet, and sporting some extremely baggy tracksuit bottoms, the legacy of a rather painful 'man's operation' from the day before! Unfortunately for Paul the bird had continued to drift upstream past Northwick Warth and towards Aust Warth, and was becoming distant from New Passage. So we went to Old Passage and relocated the bird near the old Severn Bridge where we watched it until dusk.
DESCRIPTION
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| Body | Short, with 'blunt' rear end and when preening, or just resting on the surface, having a 'fluffy, puffed up' appearance similar to that of Little Grebe. Breast white, upper body greyish-black, flanks, and rear white, mottled with blackish-grey. |
| Head | In profile – a steeply rising forehead to the crown, crown then curving uniformly rearwards and down to meet the nape. Crown black, black extending down to below eye level, and onto the ear coverts. Cheeks and chin white. |
| Neck | White at lower front and sides, some blackish-grey extending from the nape onto the upper neck sides, fading downwards into white on the lower sides of the neck. Rear of neck black, extending from crown to upper body in a narrow central band. |
| Bill | Blackish with the lower mandible curving upwards to the bill tip, creating the impression of having an 'up-turned' bill. |
| Eyes | Red. |
| Size | Difficult to judge in isolation, but was approximately three quarters the size of Eurasian Teal, as the bird drifted past a small raft of them on the water. |
| Dick Reader - October 1996. | |