Day 2: Eared Grebe

It took me some time to dig up a photo we had taken of one of these, and it turns out it's been 3 years since we've seen one - on Patagonia lake in the southern part of Arizona in January during a birthday trip we took. Wow - 3 years! I can't even think of what I've done during that time... work, draw, freak out about the passing of time...?

But I digress. Here is today's bird, in all of his/her dull non-breeding glory, done in mechanical pencil (about 5"x7" on sketch paper):



You can tell an eared grebe by the white "ear" patch on the back of the neck, but other than that (and the fluffy butt), they aren't too thrilling.

Unless, of course, you get to see them in the summer, in breeding mode, which we have not. At that time, they get pretty darned spectacular, judging by the photos and drawings I've seen. Since I don't have any of my own pix, I did just a brief sketch from one of my bird books, just so you can see the long, lashy feathers that fan out from the red eye:



It just makes you realize that you can't always judge something the first time you see it.