Black-throated Diver - Barry Dock : 29. December 2024

My last venture of 2024 was a visit on 29th December to Barry Dock to see and photograph another juvenile Black-throated Diver which had already spent a couple of days in the dock. This is a great location with good parking and over the years I have seen and photographed a number of Great Northern Divers there.

The only drawback is that one is photographing from an elevated dockside position which is not ideal.

I was on my own searching for the bird until Mark Hipkin from Neath turned up followed closely by Carmarthenshire 'toggers' Richard Cleobury, Mike 'Trim' and Neil Fermandel.

Mark had spent 2024 concentrating on an attempt at breaking the Glamorgan Year List record jointly held by Dean Bolt and Barry Stewart of 222, finishing frustratingly short on 218, still a magnificent effort.

Mark had the idea of phoning Dave Pritchard who now lives in Barry/Rhoose who had already seen the bird and Dave advised that the diver favoured the north-west corner of the dock which was not visible from our viewpoint.

We all therefore jumped in our vehicles and headed for the location and low and behold upon arrival the bird was showing really well and coming in as close as 20' or so to the dockside on occasions.

John Wilson then turned up and we both agreed that we had never got such great views of one of the diver species, this was only the third occasion from memory that I have seen and photographed a Black-throated Diver on an inland water body.

We all filled our boots and I came away with just over 200 images which I whittled down to a couple of dozen when home.

We all then said our goodbyes and headed for home, here are some images from a very pleasant afternoon.......

Black-throated Diver - Llanishen Reservoir, Cardiff : 12. December 2024

Back on 12th December I made a visit to Llanishen and Lisvane Reservoirs in Cardiff to see and photograph the juvenile Black-throated Diver which had recently taken up residence on Llanishen Reservoir.

The weather was dry and very overcast with not great light which seems to have been the case throughout December and the bird was found fishing in the centre of the reservoir from which it barely moved.

I bumped into old friend Rob Mitchell who was just leaving and a fairly new birder/togger who introduced himself as Nick Perry from Cardiff and we kept each other company for 25-30 minutes hoping that the bird would come in to shore a little closer but it never came closer than about 100m.

We both tried our best to get some photos given the gloom and distance of the bird and I was reasonably pleased to get some detail in my images before heading off home........