Water Witches!

This morning started with a trek to the pier..as usual! Mark and I made our hike early enough to catch the sunrise. Coffee mugs, camera and Water Witches made the breaking dawn an interesting occasion. While I snapped pictures of the beautiful sunrise, Mark took note of the rapidly approaching group of Horned Grebes. When they were in range, my photography attempts were changed from the Eastern horizon to the grebes. These Horned Grebes were all in their "non-breeding plumage" so they did not have their horns or tufts above their eyes. An interesting note..a group of Horned Grebes is called a Water Dance! This is most likely in reference to their courtship "dance". Grebes will "dance" across the water surface in a graceful display. The grebes themselves are called Water Witches..hmmmm..I have not figured out why these darling little water birds are called witches but there surely has to be some folklore behind such a graphic name.

Sure enough..there is folklore attached to the Horned Grebes but none explain the nickname. One of the most interesting tales, though, did refer to the grebes awareness of their surroundings. A Native American tale tells of how....."the trickster "Old Man" convinced a number of ducks into closing their eyes and dancing for him. While they were not looking he killed them one by one for his supper. The smallest of the bunch peeked and was horrified. He sent up the alarm which warned all of the other ducks. This "duck" was a little grebe and to this day he is always the first to notice any impending danger!".... I knew that I liked this little bird for a reason! But this still does not explain the Water Witch thing...I pondered and read some more.

After reading and reading, as far as I could determine, the nickname of Water Witch might have something to do with the birds red, red eyes. It seems that another name is Devil Diver. My poor little bird..what awful names to have placed upon its head! If you have ever seen a Horned Grebe, I am sure you would agree with me..this little bird is far to adorable to have such menacing nicknames! I think..Cutie-Pie Duck would be far more accurate!