Poodledoos...

When I was young, I fished a lot with my dad. I think this played a big role in my love of being around the water. "It is in my blood" or at least that is what I have been told! I have been talking a lot about the odd names that have been attached to things connected with water. The jellyfish, ground mullet..etc.. and here we are again. My dad was never one to use foul language especially around the youngsters. He always said that it was a needless thing and it was best not to ever get into the habit. Being on the water with him, there were many times that curse words would have readily slipped from others mouths but not Dad. There was even a small water fowl that had the common name of "Hell-diver". Now used in this sense, it would not be considered a curse word, but Dad was careful never to use this in my presence. Instead he created a name. He called them "Poodledoos". I have no idea how he came up with such a name but I always thought that was their true name. Poodledoos! There are a lot of common names for this little fellow.."dabchick", "water witch" and "devil-diver". According to birding books, this little duck-like bird is really a Pied-billed Grebe. Now had Dad told me that a bird was called a "pied billed" anything, I would have surely thought that he was teasing me, but "Poodledoo"..now that is totally believable!

The other day, my son and I were on the pier trying to catch our lunch when the grebe paid us a visit. It swam closer and closer to the pier, diving after the menhaden that were plentiful that day. Those who are familiar with the Pied-bill Grebe will tell you that it spends a good bit of its time under the water and this little one was no different. It would dive for seemingly way too long before bobbing up a good distance from where it dove. Closer and closer it came.. always cocking its head to look at us from different angles, I thought at first it was just being curious but when it was quite near, I realized that it was blind in one eye. Poor little thing, it must have been attacked by something at one point in its life. This did not seem to hinder its fishing ability though..it was catching minnows one after another.

Pied-billed grebes are smallish water birds..not nearly as big as the common mallards. They are mostly brown with muted markings. Several interesting facts make them stand out though, one being that they rarely fly. They prefer to escape predators by diving. If and when they migrate, they will do so at night. Also, even though these cute little birds swim and dive, they do not have webbed feet! They are able to paddle along because they have lobes on the sides of their toes. And swim they do!..on top of the water and below! Another thing that I found interesting is that a group of these grebes is called a "water dance"! At least the group has a pretty name!