Possible little grebe? River Almond, Edinburgh (2 Viewers)

[louisk]

Hi folks!

Yesterday I was watching a cormorant, grey heron, dipper and some mallards all hanging out next to each other on the River Almond near Edinburgh.
As I was watching the mallards, a tiny bird suddenly swam up next to them from around a lil island in the river. I didn't get a good look, but I believe there has been a Little Grebe in that area. Are there any other possibilities? It was:

• Probably smaller than a coot, made me think it was a chick of some species, but it had no fluff of a chick. It was near the mallards but absolutely not a mallard chick. Only other waterbirds around were those mentioned above.
• Impression was of brown colouration, didn't get binoculars up. I could definitely believe little grebe based on pictures.
• Longish neck, looked very slim.
• It dived in an arc like a merganser after a few seconds and I never saw it again, despite watching for another 10 mins and returning to that same area 45 mins later.
• My partner saw the exact same thing a couple months ago in the same river. Same story - tiny, brown, dived, never seen again.

Could this be anything except a Little Grebe?
Thanks!

 

[Butty]

One can mistake anything for anything, but... it sounds like a little grebe. Note that they don't much go for flowing water unless it's very very slow.

 

[BBandW]

Sounds very like little grebe to me. A couple of pointers

• they stay under water for ages and pop up dozens of yards away
• they are considerably smaller than most other divers
• very browny/dull
• wrong time of year to be chick of another species

all sounds like little grebe to me

 

[davercox]

Agreed.

 

[louisk]

Great, thanks folks 😁 first new bird of the year I think