Another reading of the weather runes took me out to Kemerton Lake this afternoon, where (as promised) it was not raining, though I’d driven through quite a heavy shower to get there. I’d barely walked through the door of the hide when another photographer who was already there pointed out an otter, swimming across the lake about fifty metres in front of us. I managed to grab a few shots of her, but she quite quickly disappeared into a reed bed, and didn’t re-emerge.
I spent the rest of the afternoon photographing the Little Grebes that were hunting around the hide, concentrating on this one because it was the furthest advanced into their handsome breeding plumage. The yellow skin at the base of the bill is also part of the Little Grebe’s breeding livery, and is believed to act as a marker for the chicks, attracting them towards the parental “feeding station”. Like many water birds, Little Grebe Chicks are precocial – that is, they leave the nest very quickly after hatching – but they’re protected, supervised, and fed by both their parents for around five weeks before becoming fully independent.
If you’ve ever met a Little Grebe, you’ll know that they’re far from tranquil: feisty, noisy, and argumentative would be more accurate epithets. But there’s a soothing quality to this image that I really like, with the bird floating peacefully on calm water, and the flat late-afternoon light adding to the feeling that the day is drawing to a close.
R: L2, C5, D6.
