I was returning along the footpath beside the river after a session with the little grebes, when I came across this youngster standing beside the river. When I stopped, and then moved closer, it showed no alarm or any inclination to fly away, so I took this shot from within arm’s length of the bird.

Presumably, it had just left the nest and not yet acquired the suspicion of humanity held by the other riverfolk.

At one point, the footpath passes between the river and a large shallow lake. A pair of little grebes has bred on a lake for the last few years, but have always built their nest on the far bank, where the ground is wooded and rises steeply. It has been very difficult to get a view of the nest there, but this year, they are raising a second brood from a nest which is just a few yards from the footpath.

Many people have passed me, sitting on my stool with my long lens on a tripod, and looked around the lake to see what I am after. I think that very few actually saw the nest. Even when I pointed it out to the few who asked what I was doing, they had great difficulty seeing the little bird sitting on its mound of vegetation.

As I walked along the river, a group of ducks were dozing and preening in the sunshine. Breeding over, raising chicks to independence completed. I remember a similar feeling, a long time ago. Job done.

Didn’t turn out that way, though. Humans ain’t ducks.