Light is all in photography. We recently chose the time of day when the sun was getting low to walk with camera by the Moor Pool in Knutsford. Our unexpected reward was this pair of great crested grebes, one on the nest and one a little way away on the water – both well within range of my travel zoom.

What a magnificent head and neck (see featured image)! Which is why this bird was almost driven to extinction in the UK in the 19th century, for its head plumes. Fortunately, thanks to the formation of the RSPB (see history), the survival of these birds is no longer under threat.

Getting so close to grebes was unusual in my experience – they usually seem to ensure that they are some distance from humans, probably because of that history of persecution.