podiceps cristatus

Great Crested Grebe's, shot taken at distance and cropped.

Taken today on my local patch.

Great Crested Grebe

Grèbe huppé - Podiceps cristatus - Great Crested Grebe

Lovely birds to see, especially their courtship display. This one was not very shy, most of the time they dive and surface when they are far enough away to not being able to make a picture. They know it!

Juvenile

Great Crested Grebe

All those weeks ago when I was on the whale-watching cruise with Hans and Judy, one of the guides had a hair style just like this (I never got round to asking him if he was a Great Crested Grebe fan LOL). That was his nickname by the way. I couldn't resist this for my Saturday Fun entry this week.

These grebes must have felt very secure in the swamp... completely oblivious of our presences, they just continued to float around in this sleepy fashion.

This smaller guy, was even further away than the swan. It was actually rather difficult trying to get him in the viewfinder!! Well you know what grebes are like when you try to photograph them!! Why "scarce"... well I only saw two of them during my time out there and Hans was...

Thank you to everyone who've commented on my last few uploads, most appreciated. This is a heavy crop of the two GCGs just about to display. They were doing a lot of head bobs and shakes before the weed display.

I was fortunate to capture part of these grebes displaying. This is quite a heavy crop as the birds were further away than I'd have liked.

..... and something else! It's always nice to see a Great Crested Grebe at Loch of the Lowes, as thry're very rarely to be seen at Kinnordy. I spotted this guy swimming along the edge of the reeds and saw he seemed to be heading for a big blob.... another grebe, a nest, or what? Thought a...

On my way home from Kinnordy, I decided to go to Lintrathen to see if there were any grebes on view. Great Cresteds very rarely go to Kinnordy, but generally there's some at Lintrathen (just a few miles away). Right enough a pair of them but rather distant and dozing, with a Goldeneye keeping...

Not the best of pictures, sorry, but I don't get to photograph these grebes too often. So I was quite pleased to see one fairly close in to shore for once. The only other bird I managed to get at Clunie Loch, no doubt there were some Mallards hiding under the many bushes overhanging the water's...

Swimming in the morning.(Found in Kerkini lake)

I hardly ever manage to get pictures of these guys, they're usually much too far away (Loch of the Lowes is a big loch). Even so, this is a really heavy crop but I couldn't do any more, as it started to go blurry. I think his partner was probably on a nest somewhere. But one day I may get...

juvenile with a fish