# Greebs vs snow



## bowgy (Oct 10, 2007)

Last night Cedar City was hit by a snow storm and a flock of greebs migrating south ran into it, thousands of greebs according to Lynn Chamberlain of the DWR crash landed in Cedar and they spent the night collecting the surviving birds to take them to a Washington County lake to let them take off. He said greebs can't take off unless they are on water. He asked anyone that found them to catch them, put them in a box and take them to the DWR office in Cedar and they would transport them south to open water.

He was up in Cedar since midnight and he was on the radio about 7am and said that they had transported over a thousand by that time.


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## Clarq (Jul 21, 2011)

Wow. That would have been quite the spectacle to wake up to in the morning! Hopefully someone can get some good pictures of this.


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## bowgy (Oct 10, 2007)

Yeah, pics would be good. Guess they were too busy picking up birds.
News article; http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/53114352-78/birds-cedar-crash-lake.html.csp


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## Huge29 (Sep 17, 2007)

Here are a few pics http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=1849842 ... arking-lot


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## Petersen (Sep 7, 2007)

I got this one off the DWR website. Seems it came in a little hard.

[attachment=0:2wbmflec]hard_landing.jpg[/attachment:2wbmflec]


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## bowgy (Oct 10, 2007)

Yeah, they said they can come in at 35 to 40 miles per hour, some land as a skating with feet down and some times the dive in.

That would be instant death to dive into a parking lot at 35 to 40 mph. :shock:


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## elkfromabove (Apr 20, 2008)

Well, they lost about 1,000 of them because they do come in very hard since they don't have the wing and feather structure to glide in very well. But they saved about 4,000, even though some of them had broken wings and/or legs. Most of them are still on the lakes and ponds in Washington County because they haven't regrouped into flocks in order to fly further south. When you break up a flock, it's like breaking up a family or company, and it takes a while for them to get organized again with leaders and followers. Additionally, those with broken wings and legs may never fly again and there will be some that will just prefer to stay where they are, at least for this year. Some may still die, but since the waters they are in never freezes and there are aquatic insects year round and shoreline and floating vegetation to nest in, they have all they need to live there the rest of their lives. 

The people of Iron County were amazing and the local DWR employees worked 24 to 36 straight hours. (Unfortunately, I was in bed and the bathroom with the flu.) It's heartening to see what folks are capable of if they cooperate on a common task.

FWIW, It's spelled grebe.


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## Clarq (Jul 21, 2011)

Thanks for the update elkfromabove. I guess the fishing will be pretty poor at those ponds for awhile though.


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## elkfromabove (Apr 20, 2008)

Clarq said:


> Thanks for the update elkfromabove. I guess the fishing will be pretty poor at those ponds for awhile though.


There may be some reduction, but not much because most of those birds are anxious to be on their way south, just as they have done for thousands of years. A few will take up residency because they have to or want to, but instincts in wild animals are pretty strong, even to the point of death.

And some of those bigmouth bass are big enough to eat the grebe youngins this spring, so we may get an even bigger state record out of Quail Creek Res because of the grebes! Some unintended consequences are good!


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