It wasn’t a day to go birding – horizontal rain for most of the day – but I couldn’t resist dashing down to Crail Harbour for a little grebe. The last and only little grebe I have actually seen in Crail was also in the harbour on January 3rd 2018. So a real Crail rarity although unlikely to start a stampede of birders. Little grebes are, of course, up at Carnbee reservoir and usually on the pond at West Braes nature reserve, but not anywhere else. It’s the same old story of no fresh water to speak off in the East Neuk. The little grebe today was diving constantly so it was barely visible above the water. I wonder if it was a hungry migrant making a cold weather movement from the continent, or perhaps more likely it had been displaced from an inland Fife pond which had frozen overnight. Little grebes are spectacularly waterproof, which was definitely an asset today, with little difference between the surface and the bottom of the harbour. It looked fine in the driving rain, but I was soaked in the few minutes I watched it before retreating home, my dog leading the way.
Wild Crail 
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