Sick

I've been sick for the last whole week, such a bad time to be sick when exams are coming. I went to the doctor and he said that I got influenza. After days of doing nothing but lying in bed and taking medicines, I could finally be able to get up again. There are still many photos I've been keeping since the last few weeks. One of them is this set of the Black-necked Grebe shots that I took at the same harbour behind my dorm. These were taken on January 14th, a day after I first photographed another individual. At first, I thought it was the same individual I took earlier, but then its strange, even scary, bill struck me and I realised that it was a new one, a sick new one, to be precise.

Black-necked Grebe (Podiceps nigricollis)

It was feeding exactly in the same pattern as the first individual. When it stopped feeding, it spent time preening in the middle area of harbour. I even thought that it might be the same individual but something happened to its bill the night before. But after looking closely at these photos I took, I found that there are many delicate differences between the two individuals, most notably the amount of black on the cheeks. This new individual stayed around in the harbour for a few more days before moving to the Spa Beach near by, where it was joined by its much larger relative, the Great Crested Grebe, which finally showed up for the first time of the season. However, both of them have already disappeared from the beach for almost a week now. This year seems to be good for the Black-necked Grebe. Three more were regular at Sekino-E as well. About this bird's bill, a guy in BirdForum suggested that it's a serious infection, but he also have no idea about how the bird got it.

Some more closer shots of the bird