Busy, birdy day ..

This morning I decided to go to a local nature reserve - but almost as soon as I got there I got chatting to another birder who told me that the great crested grebes in a nearby park had young (which are carried on the mother's back) so I decided to quickly go there for my photo session ..

The park was incredibly busy - but only the playground bits - the lake was quiet, thankfully! And there were the grebes. I took hundreds of photos and am still going through them - lots of fishing and feeding photos, but I rather liked this one with the feather in the beak!

Mum was fine today - and long may she be so!

Best viewed LARGE!

Hot news! There is a reason for the feather!

Second to foraging, preening is a grebe's most time consuming behaviour. Feathers are fastidiously cleaned and greased with a preen gland-secretion. During preening, grebes also consume their own feathers; it's thought this may help them form and cast pellets (of indigestible food waste as seen in raptors such as owls) and also reduce their gut parasite populations.