For years, pairs of grebes would zoom across the water at Lake Hodges in a dazzling mating dance, and then build their nests on mats of dried brush suspended above the waterline.
This year, some of the birds are still pairing up, but their nesting area near Interstate 15 no longer floods with seasonal rains, and can’t sustain them. The eastern finger of the lake, which long alternated between riparian woodland and seasonal ponds, is permanently drained because of state-ordered changes to the water level.
Anyone who has driven that stretch of freeway south of Escondido, or walked the pedestrian bridge over the lake, has likely seen a flooded forest, where tree branches poke up from glassy water. That offered ideal habitat for grebes, which are powerful swimmers but poor fliers, and would build nests just above the waterline in order to access them. If the water level drops too far below the nest, the parents have trouble reaching it, and the clutch may fail.