Little Grebe, some nice photographs today.

Out at the site where I have been photographing Little Grebe things were not going too well, I had already put in 2 hours and apart from rather out of focus attempts, I hadn't even got a photo to show for it. Grebe were singing their whinnying songs from 4 different directions. Each time one sang another would sing back to confirm his presence. I was positioned on the edge of one bird's territory and every now and then the bird pictured here would cruise to the edge of his patch to patrol and stake his claim, not often but just regularly enough to make it worthwhile for me to wait. The dead reeds in front of me provide cover and he seemed to make a bee-line from open water after passing in front of me in a gap between the alder trees growing up from shallow water on the edge of the pool. There was a pair to my right and I have seen them together constantly but as far as I know this young male hasn't got a partner.

I was sat in the cleft of a tree with cam netting between the trunks to hide me. I realised that my subterfuge wasn't working properly when first the grebe dived in front of me, I thought I had been seen but then a Mallard came in to the gap and immediately flew, so now I knew that my camo wasn't good enough. I added more and the next time the grebe came in to view I managed some pictures. I know I have got other pictures from previous days already but in my usual obsessive way, I want better and better.

I needed to come home but was I was hesitant because I knew that the young male was right in front of me but in the reads. Luckily he popped in to view right at the end of my session and I took one of my best photographs of this species.

On a walk back to the car I spotted a small flock of Greenfich, not a bird that I see clos enough to photograph these days. They were eating buds, the second species that I have seen doing this in the last week, the other one being a Bullfich.