Northern Loon down south !

It's not often I get to see the Northern Loon or as its better known here in England ,
the Great Northern Diver.

Looking back at my sightings record this would be the ninth sighting I have seen in about thirty years, and most of these have been juveniles on inland lakes during the winter.

So I thought I would make the effort to visit the long staying juvenile down at Chatham Dockyard, it's been in residence on number two basin since early December, and really not that far from me as the crow flies, so to speak, so an overdue visit was on the cards.

It wasn't hard to find, sat there in the middle of the dock, where it was very reluctant to leave, preening and occasionally stretching its wings, no diving in the short time I was there .

Great Northern Diver - Chatham Dockyard

Always distant, each time I decided to move around to the other side of the dock, for a better view, it appeared to drift away just that little bit back towards the direction I had moved from, very frustrating.

Good views through the binoculars, just to far for my camera lens, so here's some distant shots that have been heavily cropped, hence the fuzzy look to the photographs, that's my excuse,  but you can make out the distinctive steep forehead that separates this diver from the Red throated  and Black throated Divers which you sometimes see around the coast.

Nice to reacquaintance myself with this scarce Loon.