Phil Andrews
It's only Rock and Roller but I like it
GC Grebe
Great Crested Grebe reached its zenith as a breeding species at Upton in the late 1980s and early 1990s with between two and eight young raised annually during a nine year period. Then in a marked reversal no young were raised at all between 1994 and 2001. Since 2002 small numbers have successfully bred although fledged chicks are always outnumbered by abandoned nests or lost young. In this year for example at least four (possibly five) nests were noted with at least six young hatched but only one fledged. The high mortality rate is probably due to mink predation, a lack of suitably sized fish to feed to small chicks, competition for nest sites (particularly from Coot) and flooding during several recent Springs.
There is little management work that can be undertaken to assist Great Crested Grebes other than ensuring the general healthiness of the pool, the supply of a range of fish sizes and the contol of mink.
Unfortunately it has not been possible to offer any meaningful statistics for Little Grebe given the highly secretive nature of this species when breeding and the traditional late summer influx of juvenile birds which has made its breeding performance hard to ascertain.
Great Crested Grebe reached its zenith as a breeding species at Upton in the late 1980s and early 1990s with between two and eight young raised annually during a nine year period. Then in a marked reversal no young were raised at all between 1994 and 2001. Since 2002 small numbers have successfully bred although fledged chicks are always outnumbered by abandoned nests or lost young. In this year for example at least four (possibly five) nests were noted with at least six young hatched but only one fledged. The high mortality rate is probably due to mink predation, a lack of suitably sized fish to feed to small chicks, competition for nest sites (particularly from Coot) and flooding during several recent Springs.
There is little management work that can be undertaken to assist Great Crested Grebes other than ensuring the general healthiness of the pool, the supply of a range of fish sizes and the contol of mink.
Unfortunately it has not been possible to offer any meaningful statistics for Little Grebe given the highly secretive nature of this species when breeding and the traditional late summer influx of juvenile birds which has made its breeding performance hard to ascertain.
