Nature Notes

I write a monthly nature notes column for a couple of community magazines. Here's the one I've just prepared.

We quite often look in at the Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust reserve at Llyn Coed y Dinas as, despite the annoyingly large numbers of Canada geese, there are often some interesting water birds to be seen there. We’ve enjoyed watching two young great crested grebes growing up and learning about life and fishing, through the latter part of the summer. Several species of grebes can be found in the UK, but the large and showy great crested grebe is, I should think, the most often seen. Some of the other species are quite scarce, but one that is also widespread is the small, quite unshowy little grebe or dabchick.

I was able to observe a juvenile Little Grebe at Llyn Coed y Dinas late in September. I watched as it climbed out of the water onto a shingle bank quite close to the hide, where it sat for quite a while preening itself, surrounded by lapwings. Some of the ubiquitous Canada geese noisily approached, and the grebe nervously rushed back into the water, but it was quick to return to its spot in the shingle once the ‘danger’ had passed! I could tell it was a young bird because of the cryptic markings on the head, but its general air of nervousness might have been a giveaway too.

Once back in place on the bank, the grebe managed to resemble a stone so convincingly that I think I would have missed it if I hadn’t seen it arrive. And to be honest, for a supposedly highly aquatic bird, this little chap didn’t seem to like the water much. Once forced back into the water by a returning crowd of Canada geese, it rather grudgingly (I thought) headed off into deeper water, ducking under the water a few times before eventually diving.

Grebes are, in fact, consummate diving birds, and the dabchick is no exception. It dives frequently, and when it bobs back up the surface, this can be quite a distance from where it went down! It dives, sometimes with a bit of a splash, to catch the small fish and other water creatures on which it feeds. This bird can be found on all kinds of ponds, pools and lakes, though on larger stretches of water it prefers the more sheltered bays and inlets.

Grebes are reckoned to be fairly primitive birds. They are short-winged, and the legs are set quite far back, making them rather ungainly on land - though my little grebe proved itself able to dance along in an upright posture at quite a pace when threatened by the geese! They nest out in shallow water, building up a pile of water plants to make a sort of small artificial island. Between two and six eggs are laid, and the baby birds quickly leave the nest after hatching, often to be carried, as with many other water birds, on the back of one of the parents.

This is the least showy of our grebes, but the adult is still quite handsome, seen closely, with a dark crown and a brownish-red lower head and neck. Any seen now though will be in winter plumage, dull brown with buff underparts.