Neptune is in retrograde. Generally I don’t read horoscopes but I do love a catchy headline. Neptune retrograde is a usual headline for mid June.

Neptune is the planet that gives us the desire to unveil mysteries.

Most of nature is a mystery to me. Fortunately, others have studied and explained what I see. With a little research and reputable internet sources, I find answers instead of leaving events and happenings up to my imagination.

The word retrograde means, opposite to the usual order. It also means moving in reverse or backward — hence why wearing 60s style clothing is so retro.

This week, my husband and I have been watching something that seems a bit retrograde, something that’s not the usual order — in our minds at any rate.

Two of our Least Grebes, Tachybaptus dominicus, built a raft at the base of an uprooted cattail in the Resaca close to the retainer wall. For a couple of days, the ducks appeared to be using the raft as a landing/launching pad. Clever, I thought.

While the Grebes were out dining on water bugs, we took a close look at the structure. It looked like a nest. That tweaked our curiosity.

Indeed, it is a nest. Least Grebes, according to my Texas bird guide book, construct a “platform of decaying vegetation either floating or anchored by aquatic plants in the middle of secluded ponds.” The nest we investigated floats, as does the cattail right along with it.

Least Grebes are some of our permanent residents on the Resaca. So far, there are no eggs in the nest. Our periodic glimpses of the Grebes show them keeping close to their nest as they dip and dive around it for food.

The nest is built by both sexes and eggs will be incubated by both although as yet, there are no eggs.

I always think it fascinating to know what creatures and critters eat. Least Grebes eat mostly a variety of insects, including aquatic beetles, waterbugs, dragonfly larvae and adults, as well as small fish, crustaceans and tadpoles. There is certainly a lot of prey this year on the water’s surface for them. I was particularly happy to read that they eat spiders. I’d like to encourage them up to our garage where they would find a feast. Least Grebes also dive to pluck food from the bottom or emerge from under water to snap at flying insects above the surface.

The Least Grebe is the smallest of the Grebes, their size compared to that of the American Robin. Their northern range is Texas and south to Argentina. They breed throughout the year.

Those in the tropics tend to breed during the rainy season, while active nests have been found in every month of the year in Texas.

In addition to my favorite bird book, Smithsonian Handbooks, Birds of Texas, by Fred J. Alsop III; DK Publishing, Inc., I also used several websites to get a variety of information about the Least Grebe:

Allaboutbirds.org — Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Audubon.org — Audubon Field Guide

Whatbird.com

txtbba.tamu.edu – The Texas Breeding Bird Atlas

Birdlife.org — BirdLife species factsheet

Wikipedia — Just because it’s there — info on this site may not be vetted

Sunday afternoon’s relatively strong south winds began pushing the floating nest to another part of the Resaca. If it capsizes, I hope they’ll re-build in a more secure part of the pond.