Black-necked Grebe #36

A third day of sunshine and we made the most of it with a visit to Woolston Eyes. It's a permit only reserve so it's usually very quiet and today was no different - we only saw 4 people in over three hours. The recently arrived black necked grebes are the stars of the show at the moment. Less that 50 pairs breed in the UK annually and we have around 25% of them at Woolston so are very lucky. We were told that the numbers are up to around 15 at the moment with still time for more to arrive. They are lovely looking little birds with their red eyes and golden ear tufts but they can be quite elusive. We reached the third hide before we found a pair and they were very distant, but luckily the fourth hide came up trumps and at least 3 were showing nicely. 

We also saw a few butterflies - comma, peacock, brimstone and small tortoiseshell - but none of them were settling with not so many nectar sources yet. 

It was a lovely few hours and we are thankful that we were able to visit - it is less than 10 miles from where we live but since it's on the other side of Warrington we felt it was a bit out of the "local vicinity" to be visiting in lockdown.