Dancing

Spring is in the air!  The Mute Swans on Manor Floods are fighting like cat and dog, the Mallard drakes are chasing the females about and making a perfect nuisance of themselves, the Coots are scrapping and even the Moorhens seem to be 'sorting out a few issues' between themselves.  Amid all this testosterone-fueled squabbling this morning, there was one pair of birds conducting themselves in a perfect manner.  Romance was on the agenda for these beautiful birds and nothing was going to deter them.  Even the noisy approach of three low-flying swans intent on causing each other harm had no impact.  I refer of course to the pair of Great-crested Grebes, displaying for all they were worth.

Two years ago, I mentioned the dancing Grebes (see Here).  On that occasion, the dancing was happening on 30th March.  It all seems to be happening a month earlier this year.  Head shaking accompanied by brightly coloured head plumes started it all.

Both birds dived below the surface before appearing with beaks full of weed which they presented to each other as tokens of affection before swimming off together somewhere, shall we say, a little less 'public'...!