Great Northern Divers

I’ve spent four days lying on the rocks near Mae Sands trying to film Great Norther Divers. It takes time to work out their behaviour.

There are three, four and sometimes five here. Two are in full adult breeding plumage. When the tide is right they are making clockwise circles of the entire bay. They dive for fish, and then resurface further along their circular route. They’ve been incredibly successful at bringing up flatfish. They drop them and then retrieve them, bending them again and again. Presumably that’s in an attempt to soften them up. They’ve got to swallow them somehow. Once swallowed with a snake-like gagging, they move on and dive again. The adults are much more successful in their fishing expeditions than the immature birds.

All I need to do is wait, barnacles in my bellybutton, as close to and as low down to the water as possible and to be lucky. My camera is set up to take video of one surfacing with a flatfish. I want to capture the whole process in beautiful close detail. I’m moving as little as possible, am dressed in full camouflage and have wet trousers and boots from the rapidly filling rock pools in which I’m lying.

They come past and catch nothing when they’re near. They dive away and catch an incredible fish.

That process repeats until it’s the time and tide for them to set off into the sea. A few hours later they’re back. They come incredibly close, and I get beautiful video, but they still don’t have any luck fishing near me.

Four days. It was lovely to spend time with them, to be outside, to witness nature, to study their behaviour.

I just have very little to show for it. Does it matter?