![\"western](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/western-grebe-0251-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\nBirds can be volatile. The mood on a pond can change from peaceful to stressful or even violent in an instant.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1\/3200, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc,\u00a0not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n Yesterday morning I spent some time with a family of Western Grebes at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge. It was a peaceful familial\u00a0scene much of the time as the parent grebes spent most of their time fishing and the youngsters waited on the surface to be fed. I like this image of one of the chicks because of its fine detail, good light on the bird and the clear reflection in the smooth water. And for me it has a calm, peaceful feeling.<\/p>\n But the mood on the pond can change in a nanosecond.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/1600, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc,\u00a0not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n The adult grebes\u00a0were extremely possessive of their hunting territory, especially since they had chicks to feed.\u00a0These birds were fishing near a small bridge where the current presumably concentrated small fish and the parent grebes weren’t in the mood to share. Whenever another adult grebe would approach, one of the parents would assume a threatening posture and if that warning wasn’t heeded the grebe would attack. When they do so their acceleration and speed\u00a0in the water\u00a0are truly impressive and the effort leaves quite a wake in the water behind them.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/1600, f\/6.3, ISO 500, Canon 7D,<\/em> Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc,\u00a0not baited, set up or called in<\/strong><\/p>\n It’s even more impressive when you realize that they’re using only their legs and feet to accelerate – never their wings (in a similar situation Pied-billed Grebes use both their feet and their wings). Having a needle-nosed bird coming at me at that speed would certainly get my<\/em> attention!<\/p>\n While these birds can and do physically fight (they may attack underwater, stab with their bills and fight face-to-face on the surface) that’s something I’ve never seen in this species. Each time one of these attacks has occurred in my presence the less dominant interloper\u00a0has fled before physical contact was actually\u00a0made.<\/p>\n This behavior is challenging to photograph. Even though I often anticipate the attack their acceleration is so lightning-quick that I usually cut off the head of the bird in the first frame of the burst. Yesterday I just got lucky with these two shots.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Birds can be volatile. The mood on a pond can change from peaceful to stressful or even violent in an instant.<\/p>\n![\"western](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/western-grebe-0182-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"western](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/western-grebe-0174-ron-dudley.jpg\")
<\/p>\n