In search of great crested grebes

The first birdwatching sight that got me excited about birdwatching was seeing a pair of great crested grebes dancing on a reservoir near where my parents live, when I was about nine.

A few years ago Crafty Green Boyfriend and I visited Linlithgow in early March and were delighted to find about 20 pairs of great crested grebes dancing on Linlithgow Loch. Every year since then we've visted the town in early March in the hope of seeing the grebes dancing.

Today we saw four or five great crested grebes (two of which are in this photo)

and several little grebes

 
and none of them were dancing. The weather may not have been ideal, I certainly wouldn't want to be dancing on such a windblown and choppy Loch under dull grey skies!

We did see a lot of birds though, many of which were asleep like this pochard

These young mute swans welcomed us to the Loch.

and these coots were showing off their funny feet as they wandered round the grass.