Fish for breakfast ....

.... again.  

The main shows one of the brood being fed a fish.  In the extra you can see one of the parents feeding the youngster a feather.  Great Crested Grebes are alone among birds in eating their own feathers and feeding them to their offspring.  There are various theories that seek to explain the behaviour, and it may be that the feathers help with the digestion of the small fish bones.

I'm sorry about the repetition today, but I'm very much enjoying finally getting to photograph the little humbugs that the Great Crested Grebes have produced.   

I've been following this pair over the course of the year, and if you've been following this journal then you've been following their story too, although you may not have realised it.  There are a couple of earlier entries this month, showing the Grebes on the nest looking after their eggs.  I had them dancing on the 8 Feb, and there have been various shots of them as individuals in the intervening period.  

Their first attempt at a nest was thwarted by the otter that I blipped on 25 Feb.  Nature is red in tooth and claw, and I've been hoping that the otter wouldn't show an interest in the new nest, or the humbugs, and (fingers crossed) to date they have remained safe and sound.

The Glastonbury Festival is now on, which makes getting to the Avalon reserves a bit of a pain for a few days so I may well now give you a break from Grebe shots for a bit.