Great Crested Grebe
What’s not to love about the great crested grebe. Not only are they photogenic but they live their lives on the open water, where they can be observed, photographed and admired. Their displays of affection and their mating rituals are sublime. The calmess and serenity with which they teach their young life skills is moving.
The first series of images shows a pair performing part of their mirroring ritual, their reed dance and the pair mating. Needless to say that these images won’t all be of the same pair but all were taken at RSPB Ham Wall during 2024.
The following images show a little of the upbringing of chicks in a typical great crested grebe family, this sequence starting with parents tending the nest. Never could there be more doting parents.
This second image is of one parent checking the nest and re-positioning the eggs.
The eggs have hatched and one parent is taking the chicks on a guided tour of RSPB Ham Wall.
The tour is over and now it’s down to work. Time to find out about fishing. One parent spills the chicks from its back into the water and parent number 2 makes sure there are no predators around.
One of the parents has been fishing and brings back a fish to show the chicks.
From the family with 4 chicks, we move to a family with just 1 chick. This chick is growing fast and has been given a fish caught by one of its parents.
The parents now have to start to teach the chick the real life skill of fishing. No more being fed with fish caught by your parents. First a parent will place a fish on the water in front of the chick and the chick learns that it has to take a fish from water. Sorry, no image for this.
Once the chick has mastered this, the next stage is shown in the next four images. A parent holds a fish in its beak and shows it to the chick. The parent won’t give it to the chick, the chick has to “catch” it. The parent turns away from the chick and races away, the chick follows at similar speed. The parent dives. The chick dives. The ripples disperse and the water is calm – for a few seconds. Then the chick surfaces with the fish in its beak and the parent follows to check that the chick has successfully surfaced with its “catch”.
The last in this sequence is of a juvenile great crested grebe possibly on its first or one of its first flights. It was very early one morning and I was sitting in Tor View Hide. I watched as a parent and a juvenile swam together towards the hide and looked down the long waterway, or should I say runway, to the west. The juvenile looked around a bit more, checking, maybe a bit apprehensive, then its parent took off and flew low along the waterway. The chick followed – not quite breaking clear of the water as quickly as its parent had, then it was up and flying. Not very high and not for very long but the first steps are always the biggest. Fabulous to watch.
