Date: 4/2/26 4:23 pm From: Denise Hamilton via groups.io <2napabirders...> Subject: [northbaybirds] Have you ever seen the "Weed Ceremony" of Western/Clark's Grebes?
Hi all,
David and I went to the north arm of Lake Hennessey (off Conn Valley Rd. in
Napa Co. on March 30, in hopes of finding the Least Bittern discovered on
March 27. That did not happen I'm sorry to say. But way up on the
northern tip of the lake 20+ Western & Clark's Grebes had gathered and
there were MANY courtship dances happening! Of course, the section of the
trail we were on had a lot of leafed-out trees along the edge of the lake
so we had to keep moving around to watch the grebes, but they were so close
to us! We both zeroed in on a pair of Western Grebes in an opening where
David could take some pictures and we noticed that both of them went under
water and came up with beaks full of grass! And happily, David caught it
all on a video! You can see it here: California Bird Atlas Checklist - 30
Mar 2026 - Lake Hennessey--north arm - 40 species (+1 other taxa)
<https://ebird.org/atlascalifornia/checklist/S314956936>
We both stared at each other and wondered, 'what did we just see??' I
looked it up in the Birds of the World site and found the answer (here is a
shortened-up version of the article section):
Weed Ceremony... Late in pair-formation.. Weed-diving follows, in which
bird in neck-stretched posture suddenly dives vertically, head entering
water near base of neck, bird brings organic material from below, surfacing
in erect posture. When one bird dives, second usually does also. When both
birds have weeds, they approach, feet churning, and rise into vertical
posture with most or all of body out of water, necks stretched upward,
bills raised 20° to 80° above horizontal birds move slowly forward or
spiral, heads may be rotated intermittently from side to side. Display ends
when one bird discards weeds with quick head shakes and resumes horizontal
body posture; other then follows suit. Bob-preening follows, birds swimming
side by side ...
Between all the dances and the 'weed ceremony', which was a first for us,
we couldn't have asked for a better outing!
We are wondering if any of you have seen this before.
At home we still have plenty of White a & Golden-crowned Sparrows; Rufous
Hummers are starting to appear, and a beautiful male Hooded Oriole who is
at some neighbor's palm tree has found our feeder and pond! And hopefully
W. Bluebirds and Oak Titmice will have successful nesting in our two boxes.
Happy Spring birding!
Denise and David Hamilton
Napa
