Thursday, September 13, 2007

A bird in the pond ...

Took a few shots yesterday whilst walking round the 'pond' in Eglinton Country Park at Irvine. I'm going to leave you to work out what the bird is - one helpful hint, it's a juvenile, probably first brood.



And this is it going hunting for food.

4 comments:

Katya said...

Well, I went here...

http://s115507184.websitehome.co.uk/locations/eglinton_park.htm

and could not find anything quite like your pretty little "zebra-like" bird. Drat! I did see some beautiful birds, though. I LOVE the Eider Duck, which although Wikipedia says inhabits North American coasts, I have never seen!

In enlargening the picture, the bill strikes me as being similar to that of a swan. Am I getting any closer?

An Honest Man said...

Fraid not Katya. The bird is about duck size. I'll leave it a bit long then reveal all. A further clue though is that in the summer adults have a pronounced crest.

An Honest Man said...

It's a juvenile Great Crested Grebe.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/g/greatcrestedgrebe/index.asp

Since they tend to swim under the water catching fish, it was difficult to count, but there were 2 adults and I think 5 young. Two of the young were 'doing their own thing' so might well have been first brood, whilst the rest were still being fed by the parents and were probably second brood.

Katya said...

Oh how funny...I was just searching about online when I saw your comment here! A grebe? We don't have those here. I looked in Wikipedia (gosh what ISN'T listed there?) and they made a comment that the youngsters have stripes like a zebra. That made me feel a BIT better! Not a good Sherlock Holmes here, methinks....