Welcome to Earth, my handsome zebra baby. Please take this crustacean, it's bigger than your face!

[Jack Breakfast]

Well folks, this will be my last grebe-related shot for some time. Taken with the Canon 7D and 70-300L at 300mm. iso640, 1/800, 5.6...a big crop, this is only about 45% of the original. I can read your mind, folks! I too would have preferred a lower angle but getting lower would have been dangerous and unwise. Some aesthetes may dismiss this as a snapshot with poor IQ but I certainly don't see things that way. If I did, I would never waste our time by posting such a shot! Silly Breakfast, you're not so far gone, are you? Anyhow, of course and always I will welcome your thoughts and opinions...

[arash_hazeghi]

what a big meal! I wonder now that you have such great opportunities if it is worth to construct a floating blind and take it to the next level. might be worth it...chick and mom make a great combo

[Shawn Zierman]

Excellent moment! Well captured. I really like Arash's suggestion. You've obviously emersed yourself into
the world of the grebe...but will you consider submersion?! There's no turning back after that good sir....

[Jack Breakfast]

Ha! I will SERIOUSLY consider that for next season. I was reading up on the subject recently, and the floating blind seems to be easier to construct than I would have thought. A great way to take intimate shots with a shorter lens, to be sure. It certainly would take things to the next level, as you say, Arash. I'm giddy at the thought of it. I do have the right personality type for a floating blind, I think. Far cheaper than a 500mm lens, I would say. Thanks for the encouraging suggestion, folks...anything's possible...

[jack williamson]

Mom needs to downsize the meals for junior. These grebe images have been great!

Jack

[Karl Egressy]

what a big meal! I wonder now that you have such great opportunities if it is worth to construct a floating blind and take it to the next level. might be worth it...chick and mom make a great combo

Arash, your suggestion would work somewhere else, but I know this place.
This is where I saw my very first Red-necked Grebe long time ago.
It is protected by security guards 24/7 and surveillance cameras.
It is highly unlikely that anybody could go into the water without being picked up by the Police in five minutes.

Jack, it is a very nice behaviour shot.
Great way to finish a series.

[Jack Breakfast]

Karl's quite right...a floating blind would be out-of-the-question for this spot, but a nice idea for some other spots...not just for grebes but other waterfowl too...

[Grace Scalzo]

Jack, This image certainly has a place in your files. I think that the behavior that is shown, as well as the attentive look of the mother make it really quite special. There may be some issues that we here on BPN note as the standards are so very high, but never the less, it would be a keeper in my book.

[Jack Breakfast]

Indeed, Grace...I am self-chastising as well...sometimes I do wish for a longer focal length, which would only improve an image like this one. Arash's suggestion to build a floating hide is excellent, although it wouldn't have been possible in this particular case. I appreciate the standards on BPN, of course, joining this forum has raised my own standards considerably. This forum has helped me immeasurably, and I tell other people about it as I converse birdily with the folks I meet while walking through parks and alongside stormwater ponds, etc.

[gail bisson]

Love the interaction here Jack.
You have given yourself a good self critique!
Gail

[Miguel Palaviccini]

What a great behavioral shot! It's not something you see every day ... or anything I've ever seen. Thanks for the sequence Jack!