Psilos
Bird Journal |
Saturday August
16th 2008 |
||
Bonding |
||
 |
||
Today it is dry and sunny.
Just the right weather to spend a few hours beside the lakes at Moses
gate country park. On the main large lake the Great crested grebes chicks
are growing fast fed by a plentiful supply of fish from the male. Very
soon the female will hunt for fish for them too but at the moment they
are still quite young and need all her protection. |
||
 |
||
The female also still spends
alot of time at the nest. I have never seen an adult grebe spend so
much time on the nest once the chicks are hatched. In any case the youngsters
are growing well and their begging calls can now be clearly heard from
the side of the lake. |
||
 |
||
There is much activity
at the nest today. Both adults seem very restless. The female who is
sitting on the nest gets up regularly to turn the eggs and the male
frequantly rushes over to see what is happening. There is however still
no sign of any cygnets. |
||
 |
||
 |
||
What happened next was a complete
surprise. Both birds were working at the nest when suddenly the female
gets up and leaves the nest. Here I thought the male would replace her
but I was to be wrong. Both birds then started to bath together, rubbing
their bodies close to each other entwining thier necks and splashing
water enthusiastically everywhere. It was a thoroughly intimate scene.
|
||
 |
||
Then the female lowered her
head to the water surface in the classic submissive position. The male
then took this as a sign that the female was ready. In a very ungainly
fashion he rose up out of the water walked across her flattened back,
turned, lowered himself and mated with her as they both sang out piping
highly with thier necks outstretched. A thoroughly beautiful scene.
This is not so much mating as the birds reaffirming their bond together. |
||
 |
||
Afterwards much wing flapping
ensued, the male called out proud and strong and then went and sat back
down in the nest taking over from the female. |
||
 |
||
