Rare UK breeding success for the Slavonian Grebe

I read today that research is to be done into the behaviour of one of the UK's rarest birds.

The bird in question is the Slavonian Grebe which most birders see in its drab winter plumage and then stuck out to sea but in its breeding plumage is a little corker! Well all of the Grebes are little corkers.

There are 22 breeding pairs in Northern Scotland, the lowest level since monitoring records began.

This year has been a good one with for breeding with a total of 17 chicks. There six at Loch Ruthven where there were none in the previous two years.

According to Stuart Benn, RSPB Scotland's conservation officer for the south Highlands

What is clear is that while populations are thriving in Iceland and Norway, things aren't going so well here.

It would be good to find out why that is and what things we, as conservationists, could be doing to turn around the fortunes of Scotland's Slavonian grebe population.

To do this we'll need to focus our research on key areas such as the role of weather and climate, when and why chicks die and compare our results with other countries whose populations are faring well.