Yesterday (July 11) Tim & I went to Tri-Valley WA for a couple of  hours.  In
the pond on the east side of Madison-Hall Rd, just north of  the tank where
the Blue Grosbeak is found, we saw 5 birds swimming that are  giving us serious
identification problems, not because we couldn't identify them  but because
what we identified absolutely should not be here at this time of  year.  I will
describe them just as I did in the sketch & notes I took,  without naming
what I think they are just yet.

The birds had a roundish, "football" type body that rode very low in  the
water & it looked like the tail was almost non-existant.    They had a slightly
long neck and the head was very flat on top.   The bill was the most
distinguishable characteristic :  it was somewhat  long & very thin & pointed.  The body
color was actually the  hardest thing to determine.  The back, neck, & most
of the head was an  almost uniform brownish-grey, with the very top of the head
being darker than  the rest.  The throats & necks of all 5 birds were whitish
but  varied somewhat in just how white they were.   Some were very  white,
others less so, almost a buffy color.  We were tooar away to  determine just how
far up onto the face/cheek the white extended.  They  would often "stand up"
in the water & spread their wings & we could see  the bellies were very white
& they had large white speculems.

They most certainly looked like grebes to us.  Everything about the  shape of
the body, head & bill said grebe.  But not Pied-bill---the  bills were just
too thin & pointed.  The bill shape did suggest the  possibility of a merganser
but the body shape did not.  And we definitely  did not see anything that
even remotely resembled a crested head.  We  watched the birds for a period of
about 30 minutes, through the scope.  I  took notes & made a very rudimentary
sketch but, idiots that we are, we  never thought to try to get a picture.

We left thinking they must be immature either Horned or Eared Grebes,
leaning slightly towards Horned only because we could not detect a "peak" on the
head, but again, we were probably too far away to tell that for sure.  We  also
considered the possibility of eclipsed plumage grebes, but if they were in
eclipse, they shouldn't be able to fly & we thought they must be on an
extremely early migration.  I know that the likely-hood of either of these  birds
being here at this time of year is about impossible.  I called Jim  McCormak to
get his thoughts on this & he confirmed that neither Horned or  Eared Grebes
should be here but he did say that Eared Grebes nest in nw Illinois  so would
possibly be the more likely of the two.  After talking to  Jim, we did go back to
try to get some pictures but they had left the  pond.  Does anyone else have
any thoughts on what we saw or the possibility  of either of these grebes
being in Ohio in mid July?

Laura Dornan
Louisville, Stark County



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