I spent yesterday evening talking to the Devon bird Watching and Preservation Society. I had been invited along to the East Devon Branch meeting to show some of my pictures and after a succesful evening .........I hope and as I walked back to my car, I wondered what bird species would be next to add to my galleries and I have to confess that this thought excited me. Less than 8 hours later the question was answered!
I knew that yesterday a Red Throated Diver had been seen on the Exeter Canal on the Turf stretch. So when the day dawned I quickly got myself ready and well before 9, thats early for me, I was walking along the canal bank towards Turf. It was a beautiful morning, misty but with a strong rising sun burning through. It took me more than an hour to locate the bird even though I knew it had already been seen earlier. The Exeter University Rowers didn't help but the Diver, amazingly wasn't concerned about the boats. I have said it before and at the risk of saying it again, why cant they go and row their boats somewhere else and not along this environmentally sensitive stretch of the canal? I said it wasn't concerned because I located the bird amongst the boats, it was now down the canal where I had walked from. I obviously hadn't been looking carefully enough. I crossed the canal at the Turf hotel so that I had the sun behind me and walked purposefully down the opposite bank to the Diver that was now preening and bathing, seemingly without a care in the world.
Unfortunately the sun had by now given up the ghost and was completely hidden behind the misty clouds which probably made photography a bit easier. Birds with strong white patches are not easy to photograph. I had the bird to myself for at least an hour before other birders started to arrive but the Diver didn't seem to care too much.
One thing that surprised me about the bird was it's bold red eye which you couldn't always see to good efect and even though this particular individulal was not in breeding plumage, it was still a very attractive and engaging bird to see in this unusual habbitat. They are usually off shore tantalizingly too distant for a decent photograph. So all in all this individual has given the birders of Devon a real treat and close views. Incidentally this species breeds in Scotland and furher north only over-wintering in our part of the world.
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