There have been nesting pairs of Red-necked Grebes in the Bronte Marina Harbour for years now, but I really came by them rather incidentally. Last week I had gone to the waterfront in Oakville hoping to see the Little Gulls and Fish Crows that had been reported there.

When I showed up to the site for the gulls and the crows I was lucky enough to get to hear the Fish Crows unusual sounding call, I wasn’t lucky enough to lay eyes on neither the crows or the Little Gulls. Since I was in the area I decided to head to the marina to see what I could see, and I was treated with a wonderfully close encounter with a male Red-necked Grebe as he preened himself in the water. His partner was not far off, sitting on their nest incubating their eggs.

There was another couple in the “Grebe basin” as its called who didn’t seem too happy that the only real nesting spot had been taken before the arrived. There was some minor altercations while I was there but no one was harmed.

I later learned from another birder that the competing couple had successfully chased the original female of her nest, and the competing female had enough time to lay an egg of her own in the others clutch. The original female eventually made her way back to her nest and accepted the new egg as her own. So it seems a compromise was made and there is now peace in the Grebe Basin ✌️ 🕊️ 🐣.