Winter, when little grebes return to the Wolverhampton stretch of the Staffs and Worcs Canal for their hard-weather quarters – usually. Last year I didn’t spot a single one. By the start of the month there was one on the stretch of water between Compton and Wightwick.
When I was taking the photos, I thought it was swallowing a fish. When I got home and looked at the pictures, what’s hanging from its beak is a piece of vegetation.