Eared Grebe with young one

I love these Eared Grebes, with their bright red eyes that look like red buttons. They are only small, 28–34 centimetres (11–13 in) long. I spent a while trying to photograph several of them at Frank Lake (SE of Calgary) two days ago, 12 July 2014. I say "trying", as they are fairly fast swimmers, who like to keep changing direction and who were almost constantly diving for food. They were also preening most of the time. There were a handful of young ones, too, looking cute in their light grey feathers.

www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Eared_Grebe/id

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-necked_Grebe

Two days ago, 12 July 2014, I spent a few hours in the late afternoon till mid-evening, driving just a few of the backroads SE of the city, in the Frank Lake area. I had been there the day before, too, and just couldn't resist a few more hours there. Some of the fields were aglow with vibrant yellow Canola crops, which I look forward to every year. The sun was shining, but it was such a hazy day, I believe from the large forest fires in the next province to our west (British Columbia).

My first stop was at Frank Lake, where I saw a few more Eared Grebes with their quite large "babies". The light was really bad, so it was impossible to get photos that showed colour and details, unless the sun happened to catch the golden "ear" feathers. Saw Soras again - love these little guys, they are so cute. A few very distant White-faced Ibis were in the area, but I lucked out later, finding this lone Ibis at a slough. The Barn Swallows are vicious at the moment, dive-bombing anyone who approaches the blind! You not only hear them as they whoosh past your head, you also feel them! Hang on to your camera if you take photos from inside the blind, as they will continue to dive-bomb. It's too bad, as they really don't make it very pleasant for people. Also saw a couple of small birds that I'm not sure of the ID for, along the country backroads. Posted one of them yesterday and will upload a very poor photo of the other sometime soon.

I see that, on Flickr, one can no longer click and open a link that's included in one's own description. Instead, it works if one right clicks on the link and then opens in a "new tab". Why on earth did they change from just one simple click?!