It is only when mum turns around that you can see three (click to enlarge, then count!) chicks riding on her back (below). The black-necked grebe chicks hatched exactly the same time last year, by the way.
Dad is diving for food - damselfly larva - to feed the chicks. This is why he looks somewhat dishevelled. Below: he's got one. But which chick will get it?
Below: off he goes again, pond weed on his back, in search of more larvae for his brood. An endless job. But food is plentiful.
A different story with the other black-necked grebes, near the wooden walkway towards the north end of the middle pond. Below: yesterday I snapped this grebe with chick; the mother was trying to off-load the chick, which was scrambling to get back on board. "A bit selfish of the mother," I thought.
But today I could see why. This grebe doesn't have a mate. Below: she is rearing the solitary chick on her own; so the chick - rather than riding its mother's back, is in the water alone, while her mother is constantly diving for larvae to feed it. But it seems to be thriving nevertheless.
Time after time, the mother dives and pops back up, never without food. The chick, in the meanwhile, is waiting for its mother, and every now and then, disappears under water, learning to dive and hunt.
The mother grebe is also coming up bedecked in weed; she's doing a great job.
On the southern pond, the great crested grebes are without young (last year they hatched in early July); and this year the great crested grebes have been more discrete about their nest location - not within a few metres of a footpath like last year!
Elsewhere on the pond, coot chicks have hatched; the swans, black-headed gulls and ducks haven't . And I saw a pair of common pochards on the the north pond.
This time last year:
To Warka in the sunshine
This time five years ago:
The descriptive vs. the prescriptive
This time six yeas ago:
Why Poland can no longer afford to keep the grosz
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