The Penguin Dance

It is only fairly recently that I have noticed a small column on the back page of the paper entitled Nature Notes. Today's was, "Watch the grebe's penguin dance." I've never heard the great crested grebe's courtship weed dance called that before.

Dutifully I went to Fishers Green, not one of the places suggested by The Wildlife Trust in the link provided by the paper, to find a penguin dance to watch. I've seen and photographed the dance here before so clambered down to a fisherman's platform when I saw a grebe and waited. It was soon joined by another and they spent some time bobbing their heads and mirroring one another. Then they disappeared. I knew what to expect. I captured them steaming on a collision course. At the the last second they both reared up out of the water, their bodies vertical and weed dangling out of their beaks. They danced ecstatically together like this for some time, how tiring it must have been for their little legs paddling to maintain the pose. How wonderful to witness this, especially as great crested grebe numbers were decimated when their feathers were used for hats. In 1860 only thirty pairs were left in the country. Also how lucky am I to have spotted a pair today? That's the power of positive thinking, or positivity. :)

The aspect for shooting wasn't great. I've chosen to Blip the moment they met and have included a couple of other pics in extras.