Surprisingly, in nearly 200 visits to Croome I have never seen a Great Crested Grebe here until now. This could be because they are divers, and the water in Croome's lake is not all that deep, although the Cormorants seem to manage!

Their name comes from the large crest, which you can see in these photos, although it gets puffed out a lot larger during courtship displays. Their crest feathers were highly sought after and sadly they were nearly hunted to extinction in Victorian times. They dive for fish, and spend most of their time on the water, rarely seen in flight.