Bl;ack-necked Grebe - Podiceps nigricollis
Canon 800mm f7.1 for 1/1250th @ iso500
A rare visitor to Moore Nature Reserve provided some early evening sessions with Peter, Ian and Simon at one of the many lakes on the reserve.
Dog walks were temporarily abandoned replaced by filling memory cards of the same bird on the same bit of water doing nothing much more than swimming backwards and forwards.
Nevertheless it was good to press the shutter after the long drought of a distinct lack of wildlife on what was turning out to be a long hot summer.
That long hot summer also brought about a zillion biting insects - which fortunately for the rest of us seemed to find Simon's blood the "sweetest" - despite the raised temperatures and the location having a full setting sun on our backs - more clothes and less skin was the order of the day.
A lot of the time the bird spent a good deal of time dodging the less than friendly attention of several "local" pairs of Great Crested Grebe - underwater "battles" and "chasing" being the order of the day - the bird stayed around for a week or more and was quite confiding and not in the least put off by the constant chatter of shutter buttons.
Black-necked grebes are listed as Schedule 1 birds and the RSPB have them at amber status.
Several pairs can be seen during the spring and summer months at Woolston Eyes Reserve a members only venue - certainly the birds there are not as close as this one on Birchwood Pool.
This grebe has a very different look in winter plumage.
A rare visitor to Moore Nature Reserve provided some early evening sessions with Peter, Ian and Simon at one of the many lakes on the reserve.
Dog walks were temporarily abandoned replaced by filling memory cards of the same bird on the same bit of water doing nothing much more than swimming backwards and forwards.
Nevertheless it was good to press the shutter after the long drought of a distinct lack of wildlife on what was turning out to be a long hot summer.
That long hot summer also brought about a zillion biting insects - which fortunately for the rest of us seemed to find Simon's blood the "sweetest" - despite the raised temperatures and the location having a full setting sun on our backs - more clothes and less skin was the order of the day.
A lot of the time the bird spent a good deal of time dodging the less than friendly attention of several "local" pairs of Great Crested Grebe - underwater "battles" and "chasing" being the order of the day - the bird stayed around for a week or more and was quite confiding and not in the least put off by the constant chatter of shutter buttons.
Black-necked grebes are listed as Schedule 1 birds and the RSPB have them at amber status.
Several pairs can be seen during the spring and summer months at Woolston Eyes Reserve a members only venue - certainly the birds there are not as close as this one on Birchwood Pool.
This grebe has a very different look in winter plumage.