A return trip to Doffcocker and I find the juvenile Great crested grebe in the same place I left him last night. Trawling the water close to the edge he continues to fish. This time I want to nail the fish in the beak shot!

Trying to capture him fish in mouth is proving very difficult. The light and colours on the water are bouncing all over the place causing an exposure nightmare and the bird is never still long enough to focus on. Added to this whenever he catches a fish (which isnt very often today) he turns his back on me so I cant get my shot.

In fact the fish seem very thin on the ground and so he decides to spend time preening instead. Grebes have the most amazing feet!

...a good old shake and its back to fishing. Sadly he fails to catch any and I get tired of chasing him relentlessly up and down and so it looks like my shot will have to wait for another day.

Whilst sat watching the grebe I watched this juvenile grebe make a quick getaway from the white farmyard duck.

and the duck thinks he is king of the duck pond.

All the Tufted ducks from yesterday have moved one but surprisingly one very alert and curious looking male swims down to the far end. This is very unusual as they rarely come down this far. Is it me or is there an english bulldog face painted on his beak?

Another exciting sighting at Doffcocker today came whilst eating my lunch. I thought my ears were playing tricks when I heard the whistle of a kingfisher. Then I saw him fly round the lake twice before disappearing up the rear end towards the reed beds. I think this is a bird dispersed after breeding as there are no breeding kingfishers here. After spending hundreds of hours over two years I have never seen one. Heres hoping for more sightings to come!