A Family Affair

On visiting one of the Great Crested Grebe nesting sites yesterday I was delighted to discover that four chicks were present. They were riding on the back of one of the parents and were being attended to by both parent grebes. I had not witnessed this behaviour before and was thrilled to record these delightful scenes with the camera.The chicks mostly stayed on the back of the parent bird as this keeps them away from water predators like pike or herons. Another interesting observation was the feeding with feathers,this apparently aids digestion of the small fish that is their main source of food. I have shown below some of the delightful scenes of parents and chicks together and may post more at a later date. Thanks for looking in and enjoy the weekend.