I made my first try a week ago at the pond this year, however that attempt was unsuccessful, the coots and the landing ferruginous ducks were too far.
The coots produce the first scenes today, but there's no light yet for photography.
Suddenly I notice two grey-lag geese landing. They swim to the end of the pond behind me. But shortly they take off; however I miss this action. Anyway, there's not enough light to catch this motion, leastwise I'm soothing myself with this assumption.
Then the little grebes appear, there are a few couples on the pond, and they try to expel each other:
Little Grebes
Soon the greylag geese appear again at the end of the pond. They set out towards the pond next to this one, but they change their mind and turn back to come closer a bit:
Grey-lag Goose
Grey-lag Goose
Shortly they take off again.
The coots are calmed down, no chasing for a good while.
Suddenly I catch sight of an unusual bird at the opposite side of the pond. When a coot approaches, it dives underwater. It does so several times, this way it gets closer to the hide and I can see, that it's a new species for me on the pond, a red-necked grebe:
Red-necked Grebe
Unfortunately it doesn't come closer.
In the end I manage to catch a flying marsh harrier:
Marsh Harrier (male)
