Southern Crested Grebes/Puteketeke, Kaituna River

After the Saturday morning ritual of the a visit to the Birdlings Flat transfer station, I stopped at the end of the road by the bridge over the Kaituna to see if I could spot some grebes.

Its the time of year that the birds are often found away from Lake Ellesmere/Te Waihora and further up the river, where they nest and raise their chicks. As far as I am able to find out, the Kaituna is the only river in New Zealand where these beautiful birds nest and rear their young, as they are more commonly found in the high country lakes of Canterbury and Otago.

They're a nervous bird, particularly when not the river, so i had to get low and shoot with the teleconverter to grab this shot (at 440mm). If you go large, you can see the suspicion in the eye of the left hand bird....