Saturday, June 27, 2009

First grebeling

I stopped by to see the pied-billed grebe nest, and found it unchanged, although the adult seemed restless. Twice she (or he...they are identical in plumage and habits) left the nest, covering the eggs with bits of nest material.
Then, as I was taking a picture of something else (to come in a future post), s/he called. So I started watching more closely. One of the eggs started moving.

Sure enough, it hatched.

Hello world.

The parent left the nest and found food for the chick, which started to waddle around the nest and cheep. Then the adult came back, picked up half the hatched eggshell, and dove down with it. S/he repeated the procedure with the other half. Then she called a couple more times, climbed back on the nest, and sat on the remaining eggs, with the chick nestled against her/his feathers.

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