Mrs Grebe and friends

Haha!  I did it again.......I had (vague) thoughts that I'd head to Mt Cook today but got caught up in coffee.....bird watching....chatting to some 'neighbours', another coffee.....more bird watching.....and before you know it, it's 3.30!  Not much point in heading up there that late in the day so the only real decision left to make was which pic to post for today's blip......

It was on a short walk yesterday that I stumbled upon this lady - Mrs Crested Grebe.  Having stumbled on her I obviously had to pay her another visit today.  The platform that she and Mr C Grebe (extras) have built their nest on is one of a number of similar platforms that have been placed around this area.   Apparently, grebes don't venture on land and nest on the water's edge making their eggs easy prey for stoats, rats and feral cats.  By introducing these platforms the birds can nest low to the water but away from land making it a much safer environment for them.  The salmon farm that operates in this part of the lake/canal/river (it's hard to know what's what round here!) were responsible, I think, for putting them out and the chap I spoke to today told me that this platform is the only one to have a nest on it.  This pair have apparently already raised one brood this year, so this clutch of 3 eggs will be their second.  He also told me that once these eggs hatch the first brood may well return and kill off the new chicks.  That's sibling rivalry gone too far I think, but we all know that Mother Nature can appear cruel at times.

Hanging out with Mr & Mrs Grebe were heaps of Scaups too......cute little yellow-eyed, black ducks (though they're not really all that black as you can see from the pic) who dive and swim to the bottom to hunt for food.......and there's plenty of food around from the salmon farm, which probably explains why they choose to live here.

And finally, as I was sitting watching the scaups dive and swim and the grebes brood and nest, a beautiful butterfly settled on a plant just in front of me, so that had to be photographed too!

What a wonderful day :D  Going to bed tonight with no plans at all for tomorrow - let's just wait and see what happens.