Apex Diver
Photos of the small duck confirm female Mandarin. I’ll pop photos of this bird and the confiding Diver on Twitter.
I went to Apex this morning and was lucky to watch the btd for 15 minutes before it flew off as Mike said. It was very close to the car park and calling occasionally when not diving. Also a (feral) female Mandarin or Carolina wood duck present with the Mallard flock. I didn’t have any reference to hand to look for the key ID features but I did notice it had some bottle green feathers in the wings. Probably Mandarin.
Still there this morning, but apparently flew out into estuary again at 11.25
Sorry Mike - from the main car park! (near the ducks and gulls).
First lake from the car park or the estuary..?
Today’s photos prove it to be BTD (more on twitter). Both species have a white underside, it’s just the back of the flank patch that is still obvious when BTD is sat down in water (& not present on Pacific)
Black-throated Diver back again this afternoon (Monday) - pretty active and easy to see, mainly around the sides of the first lake.
I doubt your book would have Pacific diver as that is American version of BTD & has only recently been separated from being subspecies - would be useful if you can post pics somewhere or send them to county recorder
I think the prominent white flank suggests black-throated rather than Pacific. This from referenced Wiki entry on black-throated: “The flanks are also white, a feature which can be used to separate this bird from the Pacific loon”.. And this from the Pacific’s entry: “In all plumages, lack of a white flank patch distinguishes this species from the otherwise very similar black-throated loon.”
I doubt your book would have Pacific diver as that is American version of BTD & has only recently been separated from being subspecies - would be useful if you can post pics somewhere or send them to county recorder
Mike Fisher and I were fishing the Apex on Friday 9th and the diver swam past us several times between the island and the Apex Drive lay-by bank. Got some poor ‘phone pics, nothing like as good as others’ Twitter pics, but luckily we had 2 bird books with us and identified it definitely as a juvenile black-throated.
General agreement on Twitter that it is a BTD (although all other species except WBD are suggested!), unfortunately it seems to have flown off.
I cant seem to get the photos to load on Twitter, potentially a very interesting record.
I’d go with immature black-throated as white flank does seem to rise slightly at back (so would show if sat lower in water) - like your video too
Posted on Twitter this morning’s diver on Apex has caused a little uncertainty on iD with both Black-Throated & Pacific being put forward.
https://twitter.com/HighbridgePaul/status/1601885918713237504
As the tweet states, they aren’t great photos due to poor light & only having my phone with me.
Any help is gratefully received.