Clark's Grebe

Monterey harbor, sometimes in the harbor but more often just offshore the Coast Guard pier or off the tip of the Commercial Wharf (Wharf #2, the one you can drive on and park in the metered slots).

Just offshore the sandy beaches from Ft. Ord south to Del Monte Beach, Seaside; scope from the "Cross" just south of Monterey Beach Hotel or from the roads that dead-end at the ocean north of the hotel Sheltered covers like that between Lovers Pt. and Otter Pt. in Pacific Grove, or Stillwater Cover in Pebble Beach Just off the beach at the Big Sur R. mouth or the Pajaro R. mouth

Fair numbers are found on the local Christmas Bird Counts (CBC), almost always in much larger flocks of Western Grebes. While the nesting colonies on Lake San Antonio seem to have about equal numbers, wintering flocks are almost always weighted heavily to Western Grebes. The recent average* for the Monterey Peninsula CBC is 11 Clark's Grebes, and on the Moss Landing CBC it is 117 grebes (but some of those are in adjacent Santa Cruz County). There have been years when runs of small fish concentrate larger numbers just offshore; some 787 Clark's were reported on the Moss Landing CBC on 1 Jan 2001, at the same time when over 12,000 Westerns were totaled.

There are some cases but rare where the birds of these two species will mate and raise young. The two birds most likely to cross breed are the Clark's Grebe and the Western Grebe therefore nature gives us some hybrid grebes. The reason that some Western and Clark's Grebe interbreed is because they always nest near each other. Both the male and female Clark's Grebe have similar plumage as adults.

Voice- The Clark's Grebe has a single note call while the Western Grebe sings a doubled note call.

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