Western Grebe During Nesting - I.

Today I returned back to Bear river to check how the nesting Western Grebe was doing. To my surprise I found that there were two eggs in her floating nest instead of one I saw last time.

At the beginning the female Grebe was swimming around her nest taking break from incubating and was doing what usually Grebes do.  It was a very warm morning so any eggs in the nest would be fine unattended for a while. 

It's time to return back to the nest. The Grebe mounted on the nest keeping her legs over the eggs. Her every step was slow and cautious.

The Grebe is almost on the eggs.


  

The male Grebe was around but not much.  Here he brought a small stick that he added to the nest.  For some reason he approached the nest from behind. The female never done it.

Most of the time the female Grebe was alone because the male disappeared for a long time but he always returned back.

When the male Grebe returned back the female often left her nest to be around him.




 

My first visit I saw only one egg.                                       Today there were two eggs. 

I hope to watch how nesting is going on for the days to come. By the way, I learned my lesson and today I stayed in my car that served me successfully as a blind.