Psilos Bird Journal
Tuesday May 16th 2006
     
"Spoilt for choice"
 
A very wet weekend and Monday meant that no birding was done but today the sun is putting up a fight so I am out for a couple of hours to see what the terns are up to. Upon arrival and scanning the lake I am unsure in which direction to head. The terns are being very noisy and are busy fishing but on the other side I see that the female grebe with chicks is staying very close into the edge whilst waiting for the male to bring fish. I want to go and watch the terns but the grebe is rarely close in with her babies and I dont have any decent photos of them. In the end I decide the terns can wait. There will be plenty of opportunities to photograph them and so I head off to watch the grebe.
 
     
Grebes are incredibly wary birds and I do not want to spook her so I approach very slowly. Along the path there are plenty of bushes and so for the large part my approach is hidden though I have no doubt that she knows I am there. At this point I scold myself for not bringing my mat for I know that to get close I am going to have get right down on a very uncomfortable, gravelly, very damp path and wait. The female has three chicks but haveing seen their size how they all fit on her back is a real mystery.
     
     
She is a very vigilent mother and waits very patiently for the male who is away for long periods at a time. During all the time I watched I never saw the female feed and wondered whether she fed at all during this time? I guess if she did she would have to be reliant on the male bringing it for her but I somehow doubted he would as he seemed so intent on feeding the chicks. Maybe she will not get a decent meal until the chicks are old enough to go safetly in the water.
 
 
The things we suffer for our passion for birding! lieing perfectly still on that path with gravel sticking painfully into my elbows was certainly no picnic but it was well worth it when the male eventually put in an appearance. Feeding of the youngsters seemed a very orderly affair. There was no gregarious crying or scrabbling by the young ones to get to the offered fish first. The male just peacefully passed over the fish to the nearest chick and with a rather large gulp it was gone.
     

Sometimes the male took so long I thought he was never coming back. I think so did the female as on occasion she fed the chicks on bits of weed she found on the surface of the water.
 
 
Sometimes the behaviour of birds is totally unfathomable. Several times the male came in to feed the chicks and was totally ignored by the female, who often didnt even look in his direction. Then one time he came in, fed a chick a fish and then turned to the female whereupon they did their bonding dance. After the male swam away the female decided it was time for a preen and she turfed the chicks off her back and set to caring for her feathers. After she had finished she then headed for the other side of the lake with the chicks indignantly trying to scramble back onto her back. Quite what spurred her to move after all her patient waiting was a mytery and it is something that makes us realise just how much we still have to learn about bird behaviour.