Great crested grebe

What's the plural of grebe? Surely must be grebe! One grebe, two grebe, etc. Be that as it may, we saw 'em again today, at Croxton Flash. I saw one, my best beloved saw a whole troop (a troop of grebe?). My one dived, and I watched, and watched … and watched. Eventually had to turn back to see where I was steering. Thought it had drowned, but a backwards glance some 30 yards further on showed it alive and still kicking. Wikipedia says it chases its prey under water, so I expect that was what it was doing.

We are neither ornithologists nor zoologists (those are the domains of brothers numbers 2 and 1 respectively). But, like many who join the National Trust and go for walks, we have a bird book (more than one, actually). And great crested grebe it was. Crest, you see. Certainly wasn't a skylark.

There wasn't a lot of space today for noticing much else as we raced (all relative, remember) from Northwich to Middlewich, via the boat lift again, to get through the locks and tied up before all the festival traffic. The wind focussed our minds on direction, the lock gate paddles focussed our muscles on the near-impossible, and a day at the tiller focussed my mind on a very nice meaty, cheesy pasta sort of thing cooked up by my best beloved. I'm ready for bed.