For me, the Great Northern Diver gives me a particular excitement ever since I read Arthur Ransome's book "Great Northern" as a teenager in the 60's. It was not until 1994 when I saw at great distance through my telescope my first Great Northern in Gruinard Bay. This was an adult in full breeding plumage.
Since then I have had a couple of other sightings but never close enough to photograph adequately. This summer in June I had a disappointment when I had taken some photos of a bird in the distance assuming it was a young Cormorant or Shag at Clashnessie Bay, only to discover when I downloaded them (and after making many checks in my various bird guides) that in fact the bird was a juvenile Great Northern. I was quite annoyed that I had missed an opportunity to move closer to take at least some decent record photographs.
The following morning, imagine my joy when I took a short walk from the chalet I was staying at down to the rocks overlooking the sea when I saw a juvenile Great Northern fishing about 40yds from the shore. Lying flat on the rock, I took a whole series of photos with my 600mm telephoto, including a shot with a fish that it had caught in a dive a few moments earlier.
The sun came out which now illuminated the dark red eye of the bird
In the next 10 minutes or so it gradually moved away, but I continued taking a further series of photos as the bird caught a fish and appeared to play with it letting it go and then catching it again. (heavily cropped photo)
Whilst I can't rule it out, I suspect that this was a different bird to the one I saw at Clashnessie Bay, it being some 20 miles away. Sometimes I have been so lucky!
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