There are a lot of little grebes at Saltholme now. I really like little grebes so I’m sort of happy ….. ish. Because there is something about their appearance in winter. Something that makes me uneasy. The bulbous back end looks like it could house an engine. They dive, as you’d expect, but when they come back up, they stare at you with a strange mechanical look, and this got me thinking.
Just supposing, a country far away, with a dictator hell bent on world domination, wanted to spy on us to see if we had some precious resources ? What better way than to manufacture lots of little robot grebes with cameras inside them. Let them go all over the place and then collect the data back.
T- 800 little grebe ? by Lockhart Horsburgh.
As herons eat little grebes they can process the data and recycle the useful components. Of course this also means that somewhere there is a factory churning out robot herons as well. Or maybe it is the same factory ? A bit like the Twix factory with two halves. I expect each command heron has a squad of little grebes which they distribute and control, using that antenna that is supposed to be a plume.
So what should we do about it ? Well, nothing. For several reasons:
Firstly, all they are going to learn is that we are a country full of strange looking folk who wander around wearing extra thick clothing, woolly hats and bundles of optical equipment to make up for bad eyesight, some of it so heavy we need an extra set of 3 legs to stand it on.
And secondly, it could just be that those cute little grebes look that way because the water is so very cold ? .
That definitely changes my appearance.
Now where did I put my medication ?