LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – For the second year in a row, the Redbud Audubon Society has set up a video camera on a small colony of nesting Western and Clark’s Grebes on Clear Lake.
The Webcam is broadcasting live video of grebes in courtship displays, building their floating nests on the water, and then patiently taking turns to sit on the nest while incubating their eggs.
A Google search for grebe Webcams suggests that this is the first time anywhere in the world that a Webcam has focused on a nesting grebe colony.
Redbud Audubon is conducting this public outreach as part of a four-year grant to educate recreational boaters, jet-skiers and water-skiers to avoid disturbing the grebe colonies during the summer breeding season.
Clear Lake has one of the largest number of breeding grebes in Northern California.
A day-long survey by local field biologists on July 24 around the 100-mile shoreline of Clear Lake counted 7,760 grebes and more than 1,800 nests in 13 colonies. This compares to 1,248 nests in 2011 and 1,322 in 2010.
To see the Webcam on a home computer or smartphone, visit the www.redbudaudubon.org Web site.
On the home page, click under the photo of a baby grebe riding on its parent’s back. It may take a few minutes for the video to load on the screen.
Generally, the video is transmitting about six hours a day, from roughly 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
If the video does not come up during these hours, try again later, as there can be lapses in the transmission.
Six separate but connected electronic devices are required to capture and transmit the live video, and glitches can and do happen.
Redbud Audubon also created an article with many photos explaining about grebes and this conservation project.
Entitled “Those Amazing ‘Dancing’ Grebes,” the link to this new page on the Redbud Web site is just below the Webcam screen.
Two other Audubon chapters in Northern California – Altacal Audubon in Chico and Plumas Audubon in the Sierras – also are conducting this grebe education project on their local grebe breeding lakes.
Audubon California, the state office of the National Audubon Society, coordinates the work of the three chapters.
The grant is funded by the Luckenbach Trustee Council, with mitigation funds paid by the oil companies responsible for oil spills off the California coast that killed many Western and Clark’s Grebes.
The public education outreach is aimed at reducing human disturbance to the nesting grebes, thus increasing their breeding success.
As part of the grant project, Redbud has purchased speed buoys that the Lake County Department of Water Resources places around the floating colonies to alert boaters to avoid those areas.
A new sign was placed on the bridge at the entrance to Rodman Slough again warning boaters to slow to 5 miles per hour.
Later this year Redbud Audubon will place at four shoreline parks around Clear Lake an attractive interpretive sign explaining grebe nesting and the need to protect the vulnerable colonies.
“This project is a very special one for Redbud Audubon Society, as the Western Grebe has been the chapter logo since 1974 when the chapter was incorporated,” explained President Marilyn Waits.
“Everyone in Lake County – residents and visitors alike – is fascinated with watching the grebes on Clear Lake,” Waits added. “The Audubon Society is proud to be able to carry out this major effort to protect their nests, eggs, and young chicks.”