Results of Horned Grebe (Podiceps auritus) Surveys at the Floating Mill Recreation Area, Center Hill Lake, DeKalb County, Tennessee, 1993–Present

Horned Grebes (Podiceps auritus) have wintered near the Floating Mill Recreation Area on Center Hill Lake, as well as at other sites on the lake, in most or all years since the impoundment of the Caney Fork River to create Center Hill Lake in the 1960s (W. J. Jones, pers. com.).  The number of wintering grebes usually exceeds 100 and sometimes reaches 400.  Influxes of migrant grebes occasionally bring the peak number of birds present to more than 500.  

    In the tables below, a blank space means that no survey was made on that date, a zero indicates that a survey was conducted but no grebes were noted on that date, and a number higher than zero indicates that number of grebes was present on that date. A "+" indicates that the number of grebes present on that date may have been somewhat higher than noted, but some factor—most notably, choppy water on the lake—prevented an exact count from being made.  Data from winters prior to the winter of 1997–1998 are sparse because I did not begin regular surveys at the lake until that winter.

    Data on wintering numbers of Horned Grebes at sites in the interior of North America are somewhat infrequently published in the literature devoted to this species, as noted in this source:

        Stedman, S. J. 2000. Horned Grebe (Podiceps auritus). In The Birds of 
                North America, No. 505 (A. Poole and F. Gill, eds.). The Birds of 
                North America, Inc., Philadelphia, PA.

    Data on the wintering behavior of P. auritus are even more scarce than data on wintering population numbers from the interior of the continent.

    To access tables with data for other time periods, click on the appropriate link below:

24 September–30 November, 2003–2012

24 September–30 November, 1993–2002

   To access tables with data for other periods, click on the appropriate link below:

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