#grebe

guys be honest did i cook

Great Crested Grebe (Podiceps cristatus), male and female - courtship display/ceremony, family Podicipedidae, Podicipediformes, Finland

Gemsbok Oryx gazella

With African little grebe Tachybaptus ruficollis capensis

Grebe parent

I got out to the man-made lake around 4:30AM that morning. The sky was still fading away from pink.

I spotted a few exciting birds: double-crested cormorants, red-necked grebes, bonaparte's gulls...as well as grackles, coots, geese, and blackbirds a plenty.

I spent a good couple hours that morning, just after dawn, trudging around the lake and taking photographs.

When suddenly! Not just a lifer, but a pair of them: two regal, majestic, black-crowned night herons..

Easily spooked, and prone to doing their fishing in the early mornings while camouflaged in the tall grasses and reeds surrounding the water, these two did not make it easy on me..