Slavonian Grebe

There are several pairs of Slavonian Grebe Podiceps auritus (N=horndykker) nesting at freshwater sites near the Trondheimsfjord. Today I visited one such site, a small lake with 3 pairs of grebes of which I managed to locate the nests of two of the pairs. As you can see in one of the photographs, one pair was incubating three eggs. The photograph at the nest was taken during a changeover when one bird left the nest and the partner took over incubation. Note that the pictures were taken using a compact digital camera attached to a fieldscope at long range to avoid disturbance to the birds.