Watergrove Reservoir, Wardle - 22.11.21
Every winter one of the divers usually puts in an appearance on some inland lake/reservoir in the region, this time it's a Red-throated Diver and no more than five miles travel distance ! the only issue is Watergrove is a fairly large reservoir but it's so close to home it's got to be worth a look.
It's a cracking day and full sun but that's ok as viewing the diver is generally has the sun directly behind. Already there's a few birders on site, the diver easily seen with the neck a dazzling white highlighted by the sun, better watch I don't over expose the whites !
Loads of waiting around as the diver is tending to remain loafing around in the centre of the reservoir, but as the diver starts feeding it can appear anywhere and not where you expect up to thirty meters from where it originally dived. Then I spot what I initially though was a Cormorant close to the wall..."oh no it's not"... it's the Red-throated Diver ! the closest so far, it's only on the surface maybe thirty seconds managing some images and it dives only to resurface back towards the centre of the reservoir.
And that's it, the low light and the diver way off in the distance time to call it a day.
Red-throated Diver
Visit 2 - 23.11.21
As the light was still pretty good today I thought I'd have another couple of hours to see what's on offer. Arriving at the wall side the diver couldn't be further away on the far side of the reservoir never coming near so I decided to take the long walk round to the side towards the moors.
The diver is in the bay I'm waiting for in to come a little closer, then boom it pops up right in front of me the closest its ever been so I freeze not wanting to spook it, it dives again and my chance to get to water edge, disappointingly it resurfaces further away managing a few shots with the 2x extender on board, not great quality, but hey ho at least I got some images !
