Country diary: a two-handed comic treecreeper act bursts out of the trees

Airedale, West Yorkshire: Shy birds break cover in spring. What we call personality is really a calculation of risk and need

The little grebe jackknifes out of sight almost before I have time to register that it's there: a flash of chestnut cheek, a plop, and a fading pattern of concentric ripples on the water. The bird books invariably characterise Tachybaptus ruficollis as "shy" or "secretive", and it's not hard to see why - but in reality, these things are as changeable as the seasons.