Western Grebes at Clear Lake in Northern California

I'm only now getting through all of the pictures I got during my Christmas journeys. It started with the Tundra Swans that we saw near Williams. We were preparing to cross through the Coast Ranges to get to Highway 101, and Clear Lake offered the most interesting way, bird-wise and geology-wise. Clear Lake is partially dammed by lava flows, and the Mt. Konocti volcano looms over the waters. It's only a few thousand years old and magma chambers in the region are still simmering deep underground.

There is a pier and boat landing at Lucerne that is a favorite stop. We've almost always seen something interesting from there and we weren't disappointed. There were Bonaparte's Gulls by the hundreds, and lots of Pied-billed Grebes and the ever-present Mallards. And lurking close to the pier were several Western Grebes (Aechmophorus occeidentalis). I was able to get a few nice shots.

I always have to remind myself which grebe I'm looking at. The Western Grebe and the Clarke's Grebe were once thought to be the same species, but there were enough differences that they were officially separated. The main tell in the field is that a Clarke's Grebe has white around the striking red eye, while the Western Grebe has black.

Western Grebe at Clear Lake (and some neat ripples)

I wasn't actually out birding or anything like that today, I was just taking a short break from a long drive. But we stopped for the break at Clear Lake, an interesting natural lake in the Coast Ranges north of the Bay Area. It is the largest natural lake entirely in California (Tahoe is larger, but partly in Nevada; Salton Sea is larger, but was an accident). According to Wikipedia, the lake covers 68 square miles and averages 27 feet in depth (greatest depth is 60 feet). It is in an area of active volcanism, with magma-related geothermal developments nearby, and some volcanoes that are only 10,000 years old  (Mt. Konockti, see picture below). The volcanism is kind of a surprise, since there are no subduction zones or divergent boundaries nearby.

The Western Grebes (Aechmophorus occidentalis) and the closely related Clarke's Grebe are pretty much purely aquatic birds (their legs are set so far back that they are extremely clumsy on land). They live and breed in inland freshwater lakes in summer, and spend winters at sea along the Pacific coast. The two species were once thought to be one, but there are physical and genetic differences, and they very rarely interbreed.

I was photographing the birds for their own sake, of course, but later I noticed the incredibly symmetrical ripples around the bird in the first two pictures. I don't know how I missed them at the time I was snapping the pictures.

I did take a moment to photograph the volcano. It was a pretty sight today (previous trips had been in bad weather). Clear Lake has a few problems, but it is an underrated treasure in the natural landscape of California.

Bufflehead at Clear Lake (on a not so clear day)

Buffleheads (Bucephala albeola) are small ducks that nest in the far north, and migrate to wetlands all over the United States for the winter.  They were overhunted in the last century, but stricter controls have allowed their population to rebound. They are considered a fairly secure species for the time being.

They forage by diving and searching for arthropods and snails of all kinds. They will dive for a few seconds at a time, which makes photography a slight challenge. I got several pictures of rippling water, although I was pleased to get one shot of a Bufflehead in the process of diving (above).

We saw the Buffleheads on the first day of our Christmas travels when we stopped at Clear Lake in the California Coast Ranges on our way to points north. A storm was brewing, one that led to some very high river levels across northern California and Oregon, but it hadn't yet started pouring. It was sure gray and gloomy though.

Clear Lake is the largest natural lake in California (Lake Tahoe is partly in Nevada, and Salton Sea is not natural). It formed in a basin produced by fault motions, and has had an interesting history in that it once overflowed eastward into the Sacramento Valley, then west into the Russian River drainage, and then back east again. The causes of these changes in outflow have been volcanic eruptions and large-scale landslides that blocked one outlet or another.

The level of the lake has dropped a lot during the drought. The level can vary as much as 12 feet or so, and it is definitely at the low end right now, as all the boat docks we could see were high and dry. The economy of the region has actually benefited a little from the intense drought because the lake is still mostly there; most reservoirs in the state are practically empty and not much fun for fishing and boating.

Did I mention the day was foggy and gloomy? The picture below actually would have contained the horizon if it had been visible. The Buffleheads provided a splash of color, even if it was just black and white!