Great Northern Diver

 25 days left till the end of the year and not many "free" days on which I can go birding, and I would like to add to my year list and achieve 200 birds. So when I am able to get out, I have to choose the venue with care, as I can only travel in tier 2. My target for today was to try to see a great northern diver. They had been reported from various places, so my choice was Filey or Scarborough Harbour. As they are not too far apart I decided to start at Scarborough Harbour. It was raining on my way to the coast with odd patches of mist, so I was hoping that the weather would improve. By the time that I parked on the Marine Drive the rain had stopped.

I walked along the top of the sea wall so that I could see into the harbour as well as the bay. A rock pipit was on top of a railing and a few turnstones were walking along the top of the wall. I could not see any birds in the part of the harbour where the boats were moored and no birds on the sea.

I crossed by the footbridge and started to walk back alongside the main harbour. There were shags and cormorants fishing but no sign of a diver. Then suddenly one appeared.

It kept diving and was out of view for quite a while, and when it came back to the surface it was often a long way from where it dived.

After several dives it came to the surface with a fish.

As you may be able to see from the photos the bird was having a bit of a tussle with fish as it tried to manoeuvre it so that it could swallow it head first.

 

At last it had the fish the way it wanted it

nearly all gone

all gone.

On my way  out of the harbour I passed this boat

I then left the harbour and drove to Filey Country Park. A walk along the cliff top allowed me to add fulmar to my day list. 

Redshanks, turnstones and oystercatchers were feeding on the grass as I drove out of the park to Filey Dams.

Mine was the only car in the car park, I went to the first hide and sat watching the birds whilst I ate my lunch.

 Lots of mallards and greylag geese, with a few teal and a single wigeon.

Lots of small birds in the bushes

I often see these crows with their white feathers

Black headed and herring gulls flew in for a drink and a bathe.

From the last hide I visited I could see two snipe

Another good days birding and my year total is now 193.