Little Grebe (Tachybaptus ruficollis)

Now you see it ... in a moment you won't! You get your camera on to it, focus, shoot and you have a photograph of water, this little chap has gone down again. I reckon that the Little Grebe spends as much time under the water as it does on it, perhaps even more below the surface. It's a good game, watching one dive and then trying to guess where it will reappear - one is never right.

Little Grebe or Dabchick? Both are accepted names for this bird but it is little and it is a grebe so for me it is Little Grebe.

You can see the Little Grebe around the waterways of Dorset all year, occasionally on inland stretches of our main rivers but usually on large ponds and near river mouths They are quite common and freely breed here although easily overlooked because of the time they spend under water.

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