iN PHOTOS: The annual courtship dance of grebes on Shuswap Lake

Every spring, pairs of western grebes execute intricate mating dances on Shuswap Lake drawing locals and visitors alike to observe them.

The birds initiate the dance by calling loudly while approaching a potential partner, curving and straightening their long, graceful necks before lowering their bills to the water and flicking up drops of water.

When both partners are in agreement, the pair rush side by side along the water surface with heads held high and feet madly paddling in a splashy courtship dance referred to as a “rushing ceremony”, according to All About Birds.

The birds end the display by diving into the water, and will give each other gifts of fish and preen each other when they are not dancing.

“The western grebes always strike me as an elegant bird,” said local wildlife photographer Ian McAlpine who photographed the birds in April.

“I love watching them dance and run across the water, and they way they care for their mate by bringing them fish.”

Salmon Arm Bay on Shuswap Lake is the site for most of the province’s breeding grebes. The earliest recorded report of western grebes in Salmon Arm Bay was in 1950, with nesting first recorded in 1962, according to an article by the Shuswap Naturalist Club.

The population of the colony on the bay has increased and stabilized over time while colonies in other parts of the province have decreased or even disappeared. The bay became a protected area in 1988 in large part because the birds were nesting there.

The western grebes will court from April to June, giving nature lovers ample opportunity to watch them this month.