As is often true of Tachybaptus novaehollandiae, our hero/ine was repeatedly disappearing and re-emerging.
Every time s/he resurfaced, the excellence of his/her feathers’ water-repellence was readily apparent.
Incidentally, as highly responsible parents, Australasian grebes sometimes eat their own feathers; click here to discover precisely why they do so.
The Australasian grebe is the smallest grebe, and also the one most often seen by Australasian humans.
It has two distinct plumage phases; this post’s individual is in the less colourful, non-breeding phase.
Photo is copyright Doug Spencer, taken at 4.35 pm on 25 June 2022 at Lake Monger.
For part of that afternoon, at least, Perth did look and feel “appropriately” wintry-grey.