Great Northern Diver

The Great Northern Diver is a common winter visitor to Ireland, it can be found in the seas all around the country. If your luck is in you can get great close up views when they frequent the harbours and ports when the weather turns stormy and the seas get rough.  The country has experienced quite a rough winter with wind speeds of well over 100kph being recorded in recent weeks, it's precisely at these stormy times that I head towards the coast to search for sea birds that have been blown to land or have decided to head for some shelter.

I've had literally dozens of Great Northern Divers in the harbours and ports along the East coast in recent weeks, so many in fact that I'm not even sure at this stage where exactly some of these shots have been taken, Loughshinney, Port Oriel, Balbriggan, Annagassan and so on.  All I can say for sure is that they've all been taken sometime in the last three weeks.

And by the way, the reason I'm posting this early on a Sunday is that the country is in the midst of another Winter storm right now and I'm waiting on it to pass by before I head out for an afternoon at Poolbeg in Dublin Port chasing a very elusive Ross's Gull that has so far caused me nothing but heartache with dip after bloody frustrating dip.  But hey the anticipation and not knowing is more than half the fun, I mean if the bird you were after was always there you wouldn't have the hours and hours of craic standing around and shooting the breeze with your mates now would you!