Little Grebe

 

A couple of years ago I sat in a hide at Mere Sands Woods watching a pair of little grebes gathering material to build their nest and feeding right in front of the hide. They are such cute and wonderful little birds.

It was nice yesterday to watch this little fella fishing at Burton Mere. Everybody else around me was trying so hard to spot the Bittern (see yesterday's post) that they hardly paid any attention to the little grebe right under their noses. As tiny as they are these birds are so graceful and they are excellent at catching fish, they dive gracefully and you can follow a trail of bubbles in anticipation of where they will rise to the surface once again. They are constantly on the go though so even when they bob back to the surface they are not there for long.

Little Grebe

While I was trying to capture the shots of the Long Tailed Tits shown in Monday's post I was met by another photographer who told me that he had just observed a pair of Little Grebes swap places sitting on a nest and suggested that if I stopped off at the nearby hide I would get the chance to spot the birds for myself.

I love these little birds so I took the advice and went to the hide with hopes high. It was a bit of a blow when I arrived as the grebe was nowhere to be seen. It was a good job however that I am patient because after a while he popped up and swam around a bit so I could grab some shots.

This is such a cute little bird and he spent almost as much time under water catching insect larvae and tiny fish as he did on the surface. I love the determination in the first of today's images, and the clear reflection as he swam towards me. In the second shot I think he was teasing me as he was partially hidden by the reeds around the hide.It was definitely worth spending time in the hide and while I was there I made up my mind that I would come again.

Good Grebe

By the time I got round to the last hide at Mere Sands to see the grebes the light was really poor and that has affected the quality of these pictures which are not as sharp as I would have liked.  The birds in these shots are a Great Crested Grebe and a Little Grebe. In spite of the atrocious weather they were undeterred as they patrolled the lake in search of a meal. They really have quite impressive fishing skills and they dived for a long time, often resurfacing some distance from the original dive.

I saw both come up with fish but was unable to capture the moment because I had had to close the window to the hide to avoid a soaking as the rain lashed down. I did manage to get a little wet but it didn't spoil my day out.  I hope that when I go back I will get some better shots of these cracking little birds.