Great Northern Diver

David and myself went to look at the GND at Ladywood Fishing Lake in Mirfield today, just a couple from there.

gwh

Exotic Mirfield!

Did my bit for the Meet the Birds day! Not the best turnout - But I knew about this beauty & was "Proper Itching" for a go! Nipped over to Ladywood lakes & watched it for a bit.
Managed a few half decent shots of this Great Northern Diver in the gloom.

What cracking feet they have!

Hopefully it's still there tomorrow in some sunshine.

Managed to get down again today - this cheeky G.C.Grebe tried sneaking past whilst watching the Diver.

Back to the main subject:

It took this pose whenever a B.H.Gull got within 6-8ft of it.

Light was a little better today.

Finally at the end of the day - A bit of good light!
Hope you can get down & see it - Once a year chance usually in West Yorkshire, & this one should be in winter plumage, as you can see it's heading that way now.

I have a couple of other shots as well on bird guides - Profile found here:
http://www.birdguides.com/iris/profile.asp?u=73202
In case you are interested!
Also other pictures from others too + different W.Yorks sites:
http://www.birdguides.com/sites/area.asp?a=121

Australia

Spent most of the time up to press in the outskirts at my daughters location or in Melbourne. The temp varies from 16C to 35C during the day. Sorry Barry no crocs down south but plenty Cockatoos etc and plenty of water birds such as Egrets, Ibis, Storks and Herons. No facility to download pics so it looks like will have to wait until I return in 2014, and we hope to get out into the country in the near future.Good to see the tree planting ongoing and seeing children involved and excellent news with the grant monies,good for the future of the group. Will keep looking on the blog when possible as wee are all sharing one laptop. All the best for now Mike.