Closer To Home

Following last week's excursions to Barbondale in Cumbria, this week found me nearer to home at a local Nature Reserve. I had visited the reserve last month and enjoyed nice views of Great Crested Grebes courting and mating. This week I had a couple of visits and spent a few hours in a hide overlooking one of the lakes favoured by the grebes.
The weather this week has been kind and although a little cooler it remained mostly dry with just a few showers. I soon caught up with the Great Crested Grebes and found that they were still in the process of nest building and performing their ritual courting displays. I got lucky on my second visit and for the first time witnessed the famous weed dance. This is when the grebes dive down and come up with beaks full of weed and dance across the water face to face. A spectacular performance and one I was lucky enough to capture for posterity on the camera. It was quality time spent with these beautiful and very elegant birds and it will remain in the memory for a long time.
As usual I have shown above a few of the many images taken this week. As well as the weed dance the grebes are shown head shaking, eating a small perch taken in front of the hide , and just posing for the camera at close range allowing me to try and capture some portraits of what is surely one of our most beautiful water birds. I look forward to more visits in the coming weeks when maybe I will witness the young grebes taking a ride on the back of the parent bird. I hope my readers enjoy my account of these memorable encounters and that my images do justice to these fabulous birds.