Wait for it to dive and then run like the clappers
I’ve just arrived in Orkney and have an afternoon free to get a badly sunburnt neck at the 3rd Churchill Barrier. There are terns aplenty (more of those soon) but I’m fascinated when this Red-Throated Diver flies over:
I’ve seen one before, moulting in one of Westray’s many bays.
It’s then that I spot one in the North Sea. It’s bobbing up and down and has a gorgeous dark red stripe down the front of its neck. It’s too distant for a photograph, so I wait and see it dive. It surfaces agonisingly late, much closer. I wait for it to dive again and then run like the clappers to the edge of the water, perpendicular to where I think it will surface and throw myself down motionless. I wait.
It surfaces:
