Pied-Billed Grebes Expand their Family (4)

I visited the Grebes' nest this morning and shortly afterwards Gary Fairhead joined me. We were commenting about how one of the birds seemed to have their feathers really fluffed up.

Then we saw a tiny baby grebe pop out into the water. The parents did the baby exchange mainly while swimming.

One of the adults fed the baby twice. Each time it would approach it's mate who was sitting on the other unhatched eggs (at least 2) and suddenly teh baby would pop out from underneath the wing of the bird on the nest and rush tot he parent with the food. Unfortunately several out of focus cattails obscured the food transfer.

These are all bid crops as we stayed well away from the nest and we had to shoot over the vegetation along the water's edge.

1. Baby plays Peke-a-boo!

What a great find, Stephen. Lucky you. Thanks for sharing this wonderful experience.

Lovely series, Stephen.

Impressive compositions Stephen, lovely habitat shots and beautifully captured.

db

This is cool.. Congrats!

Wow, great shots Stephen. And I have never seen a grebes foot before. Looks a lot like a Coot foot.

Great pictures of Spring----well done!

Great series of shots Stephen.....that babies foot is almost as big as he is.

A very nice series Stephen And now there are two and by tomorrow??

Fantastic! Never saw a Grebe baby in a nest like that. Thanks for posting!

Harvey_G wrote in post #10235063
What a great find, Stephen. Lucky you. Thanks for sharing this wonderful experience.

Thanks Harv. As Gary mentions belwo there aer two babies now and 3 eggs still visible in the nest.

sparker1 wrote in post #10235176
Lovely series, Stephen.

Thanks Stan. I was pleased to get them.

dbriz wrote in post #10235594
Impressive compositions Stephen, lovely habitat shots and beautifully captured.

db

I appreciate you comments Dave. You wouldn't beleive how many time the birds were partially obscured by cattail stems.

walj wrote in post #10235665
This is cool.. Congrats!

Thank you walj.

canonloader wrote in post #10235689
Wow, great shots Stephen. And I have never seen a grebes foot before. Looks a lot like a Coot foot.

Thanks Mitch. I was also surprised at how big the feet were.

JimLittle wrote in post #10235737
Great pictures of Spring----well done!

Thanks Jim.

Shar824 wrote in post #10235822
Great series of shots Stephen.....that babies foot is almost as big as he is.

Sharon thanks for taking the time to comment. Yes very large feet on the little ones.

Gary Fairhead wrote in post #10235829
A very nice series Stephen And now there are two and by tomorrow??

Thanks Gary. It was great to be shooting again with you, Ted and Jim.

Gator Stealth wrote in post #10235899
Fantastic! Never saw a Grebe baby in a nest like that. Thanks for posting!

Thank you Phil for your comments.

Aww, they are good looking little guys, great story too, well done!

Nice shots!!

Very nice series Stephen...Looking forward to your continued adventure.

Thank you Bret, Digital and Ted.

Ted I'm looking forward to sharing the adventure with you anf our other friends.