Great Crested Grebes with a nest

While I was walking round the park last week I saw, again in the distance, a Great Crested Grebe.  All the wildlife I am really interested in seeing is always in the centre of the lake or at the far end of the lagoon - anywhere but near!  Anyway, he was having a splash around and washing his feathers.  In the photograph below he looks as though he is ready for a dance (but I think that he has already been dancing).

When he had finished his ablutions, he swam slowly towards some trees that were low-lying in the water.

At this point, I was sitting on a bench and having a much-needed rest after walking around for a couple of hours.  I was also having my lunch, which I had to put down and get my binoculars out, as I discovered that the Great Crested Grebe had moved over to the island in the middle of the lake and that he had a mate on a nest.  Hence the reason to suppose that he had already been dancing - as male and female Great Crested Grebes go through an amazing courtship ritual that includes dancing on the water.

Below he is ignoring her as she is standing up and compacting the materials in the nest.  Perhaps he had brought her a new stick or leaves or other nesting material?  They were too far away to properly see what was going on, but she was definitely working on nest building.

Then he was at the front edge of the nest, helping her with the nesting materials.  I am sorry that the pictures are none too clear, but it is the best I could do with the Great Crested Grebes being so far away.

Her partner has swum off and the female was carrying on with moving materials around and stamping on the top of the nest. 

The male Great Crested Grebe had left the female to sort of the nest while he went off looking for adventures and food.

It was absolutely fascinating to see this pair of Great Crested Grebes doing some house-building while I was having my lunch.