Great Crested Grebe

A wander around Hardwick Hall Country Park near Sedgefield.

This is not my usual habitat so it was quite refreshing to be so close to the birdlife around the lake.

By far the most majestic was this Great Crested Grebe (Podiceps cristatus) in its summer plumage. At least I think it is, my bird identification is not that good.

‘Grebe’ is the 16th-century French word for a diving bird, 1766, ‘grèbe‘, which possibly comes from the Breton ‘krib‘ meaning a ‘comb’, a reference to its crest¹Etymonline.com. (2022). Etymonline. [online] Available at: https://www.etymonline.com/word/grebe?utm_source=extension_searchhint [Accessed 8 Mar. 2022]..

The bird’s breast-plumage was much prized by Victorian ladies particularly in the long scarves or tippets they wore around the neck and shoulders. Hence the bird’s alternative name of Tippet Grebe²Kirke Swann, H. “A dictionary of English and folk-names of British birds; with their history, meaning, and first usage, and the folk-lore, weather-lore, legends, etc., relating to the more familiar species”. Witherby & Co., London 1913..

In “Venus and Adonis” Shakespeare names the bird as a ‘dive-dapper‘:

Like a dive-dapper peering through a wave.
Who, being looked on, ducks as quickly in.

Other local dialect names for the Great Crested Grebe are Arsfoot, Ash-coloured Swan, Carr-Goose, Gaunt, Copped or Horned Doucker³Doucker signifies a ducker or diver, Satin Grebe, Molrooken (Lough Neagh), Greater Dabchick or Dobchick (Devon/Cornwall), Muffler (Oxford)⁴“The English Dialect Dictionary, Being the Complete Vocabulary of All Dialect Words Still in Use, or Known to Have Been in Use during the Last Two Hundred Years; Founded on the Publications of the English Dialect Society and on a Large Amount of Material Never before Printed”. In six volumes edited by Joseph Wright, 1898. Volume IV. Internet Archive, 2014, https://archive.org/details/englishdialectdi04wriguoft. Accessed 10 Apr. 2021.

• 1
  Etymonline.com. (2022). Etymonline. [online] Available at: https://www.etymonline.com/word/grebe?utm_source=extension_searchhint [Accessed 8 Mar. 2022].
• 2
  Kirke Swann, H. “A dictionary of English and folk-names of British birds; with their history, meaning, and first usage, and the folk-lore, weather-lore, legends, etc., relating to the more familiar species”. Witherby & Co., London 1913.
• 3
  Doucker signifies a ducker or diver
• 4
  “The English Dialect Dictionary, Being the Complete Vocabulary of All Dialect Words Still in Use, or Known to Have Been in Use during the Last Two Hundred Years; Founded on the Publications of the English Dialect Society and on a Large Amount of Material Never before Printed”. In six volumes edited by Joseph Wright, 1898. Volume IV. Internet Archive, 2014, https://archive.org/details/englishdialectdi04wriguoft. Accessed 10 Apr. 2021.