![\"pied-billed](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/pied-billed-grebe-1365-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\nI’ve long wanted a shot of a grebe completely out of the water as it ran across a pond.\u00a0 Two days ago I got it.<\/p>\n
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\u00a01\/3200, f\/7.1, ISO 500, Canon 7D, 500 f\/4, not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n When a Pied-billed Grebe catches a fish it’s pretty typical for another bird or two to chase after it in an attempt at theft.\u00a0 I’ve photographed such action before but I’d never been able to get the bird completely out of the water.<\/p>\n But what was going on here was different and it’s a behavior I can’t explain.\u00a0 There were about 20 grebes on the pond and they weren’t actively fishing – in fact they were\u00a0quite lethargic, even for PB Grebes.\u00a0 Then, with no apparent warning that I could see,\u00a0a group of the grebes would suddenly run furiously across the water in the same direction and\u00a0this happened several times in a\u00a0span of perhaps 10 minutes.\u00a0 There were never any fish involved or any other obvious instigator of the behavior.\u00a0 I saw no fighting or any other kind of obvious aggression between birds.<\/p>\n Over the years I’m sure\u00a0I’ve spent several hundred hours at this pond during winter watching and photographing grebes\u00a0and other birds and this was a behavior completely new to me – previously there had\u00a0always been\u00a0a fish catalyst.\u00a0 I know that these grebes are highly pugnacious during the breeding season but that’s something I normally don’t see because these birds\u00a0typically nest in areas of the marsh that are inaccessible to visitors and this of course is not breeding season.<\/p>\n I do wish I had more room to the left in the image\u00a0for better composition but I’m still happy to get the shot.\u00a0 It’s not easy to keep these birds in frame and in focus\u00a0while they’re running on the water – they’re very fast.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’ve long wanted a shot of a grebe completely out of the water as it ran across a pond. Two days ago I got it.<\/p>\n