Wildlife in a Suburban Garden

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The Little Grebe (above) comes close in to the bay but not towards me unfortunately.  (Apologies for the distant rubish photo but I want you to know how hard this challenge is proving).

Just to keep my regular visitors up to date with my comings and goings this last 24 hours. The morning was spent trying for more Kingfisher photos, it didn't happen though, that's always a shame.  During the week it can get just a bit too busy near the brook for the Kingfisher to feel confortable and so it proved today.  There was a particularly annoying dog walker who just kept walking up and down close to the water, quite why, I don't know…… but she has the right to be there of course . So, just like yesterday, I gave up and came home.  This afternoon I went back to Venford Reservoir, I am obsessed with getting a close up of the Little Grebe that I see every time I visit.  There's something really exciting that appeals to my instincts. What's weird is that I am prepared to sit quietly at  a damp waters edge, covered in grass and dead bracken, waiting for  a bird that I can't see yet, and then wait and wait until suddenly I get a glimpse. Then it's really exciting when it comes in to view. Little Grebe are not rare of course but I am enjoying the challenge of this species and I am on a real quest to get one over on it. They are a very wary little species in this kind of environment and it's taking  quite a lot of effort to outwit it, but I will.  Today it took an hour before I even had a glimpse and time was dragging by. The light seemd to get duller and duller with every minute that went by, the sun was almost shining when I arrived.  Eventually I saw a tiny dark shape in front of me but too distant for a photo yet, it was the grebe at last and it was fishing. It  got nearer and nearer and was just 6 feet from the edge and by the shoreline  but not in front of me, then it made a decision to move along the edge of the water away from me instead of towards me and that 50/50 decision was all it took for it not to happen for me today.  I just know that if I put enough time in I will  get a really good shot and then  it will all have been worth it.

Just a note about my visitors from countries around the world.  A big welcome to my latest new visitor from Guam, the 139th country from which the blog has had visitors.  When one considers that there only 196 recognised countries in the world this is quite an amazing statistic. You are all really wecome.  Hope to make at least 150.