A GREAT NORTHERN DIVER.

This is my first post for several days the reason being that not only has the gloomy wet weather kept me from going out with the camera but more recently a herniated disc has kept me indoors.I seem to get these every so often in recent years so there is an obvious weakness to watch out for here but it is not some heavy duty lifting that is the cause more often than not it's something very insignificant that causes the problem.In this last case it was picking up an empty shopping bag.

After a few days of hobbling around accompanied by lots of heavy duty swearing I am now not too bad.The good news is that I might have broken the world record for taking Ibroprufen tablets.

So being very brave I ventured out yesterday down to Shustoke Reservoir hoping that the Great Northern Diver reported there recently was still there.Got there at 10.00 AM on a cold but bright morning and parked up near the disabled car park where I intended to remain and see what I could see from there.No walking around for me ! !

Had a good scan round but could not see the GND but a female Goosander came fairly close and I was pleased to get some shots.

After nearly half an hour scanning around the GND was spotted.It was right across the water very close to buoy 2.

As I said earlier I did not intend to leave the car park area but the lure of getting closer to the Diver was too much and I set off to walk round the reservoir.This turned out to be a major error on several fronts.It was extremely muddy and I was just wearing boots when wellies were essential  and what I should have remembered from previous visits that when you get to the other side you are usually no nearer to the bird and if it's a sunny morning you cannot see very well looking into the sunshine. 

I soon gave up and plodded back to the car park area but guess what when I scanned the water again there was the Diver near buoy 2 again.After a while it started to move to the south west part of the reservoir going in much closer so I had to plod most of the way back through the mud to try and get a decent shot.Very briefly it did come fairly close and I did manage a few shots before it moved off again.

Completely knackered I decided to head home.My boots and trousers were so muddy now and with nothing to change into I messed up the inside of the car so much that it looks more like a tractor.Another lesson learned.