Birder Bagshaw: New tick and fantastic find 19.02.15

So far in 2015 I have seen new species; Rock Pipit, Bewick's Swan and now a Red-Throated Diver!

BEWICK'S SWANS

I've had better look so far with birds than moths. The diver has been at Fairhaven lake for a few days now and I have been keeping up to date with its presence, thanks to David McGrath. There have been some great pictures uploaded, so I hoped I was going to manage some great views of it.

The weather has been mild during the week, but unfortunately today the weather turned for the worst. It started raining and the wind was stronger. But a true birder will face any weather ;) so I begged mum to take me to Lytham.

There were not many people there, and only two other birders. The diver was in the middle of the lake drifting around with the current. Mallards were scattered around with the odd Tufted Duck, and a group of Oystercatchers were making a noise on the edge of one of the islands.

FLY BY COOT

It was easy to spot the diver but we were still a far distance away from it. I decided to walk round to the opposite side, hopefully to get a better view of it. Fortunately, I did get closer and much better shots of it. The light didn't help, but I didn't mind.

RED- THROATED DIVER

I spent around half an hour at the lake and then went on a really quick beachcomb, literally a few minutes. A lot of whelks and razorpod shells had been washed ashore, along with a couple of whelk egg balls. I also found a washed up bird, which has taken a while to get correctly identified. There was a list of what it could have been (winter plumage);

Great Crested Grebe

Red Throated Diver (would have been a coincidence)

Black Throated Diver

Great Northern Diver

After conferring with Ben Garrod and Paolo Viscardi, we eventually came to a conclusion. It wasn't a Grebe and it wasn't a RTD. That left the other two divers. I sent them another picture but this time with a scale. Paolo said that it was the GND, and after some confusion with Ben, he agreed.
So today I have seen two new species of divers, but I am only ticking the Red Throat off. I cant wait to have the final skull.