Great Crested Grebe
Podiceps cristatus
Great Crested Grebe · Stodmarsh · 2 May 2026
A Great Crested Grebe on the lake at Stodmarsh in May, in full breeding plumage. Grebes are birds of still fresh water across Europe and Asia, and the gravel pits and lakes of Kent hold them all year.
The chestnut-and-black head plumes are raised and fanned during an elaborate mutual courtship, including the "weed dance", where paired birds rise breast to breast holding waterweed in their bills. Those plumes were fashionable trim for Victorian hats by the 1860s, and the hunting that followed nearly wiped the species out of Britain - one of the founding grievances behind the society that became the RSPB.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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