Pied-billed Grebe, Rutland Water, 9th April, 2014

We were at grandson Patrick’s third birthday party when the news came through about a Pied-billed Grebe on Rutland Water. PBG is a 3* rarity from North America, with only a couple seen on average each year in Britain  – I’ve only seen a handful of them down the years. Party festivities concluded, with the finale being a sit in uncle Josh’s police car (he wasn’t under caution you understand!), we head off to the yacht club at Edith Weston, park up and walk the 200 yds or so to the edge of Rutland Water, where the bird is showing nicely in open water. In practically full summer plumage, it looked a real beauty with it’s black chin, bone coloured eye-ring and…pied bill of course! Although the light was fading quickly I did mange a few digipics before it eventually swam into dense cover by the bank.