A nice end to the year

2021 has been a funny old year. Not bad on the birding front, especially considering the limits on movements at times. With Xmas over it was time to have one last chance to get a lifer under the belt before the New Year listing starts all over again. I had two choices to go for - both fairly long-distance and long-staying birds that I should have gone for before now but were still present yesterday. The first and rarest was the belted kingfisher in Lancashire. The weather looked awful for that so I decided to go for the slightly closer and slightly less rare pacific diver near Swansea. This has been at Eglwys Nunydd reservoir just off the M4 since 11th December. It has proved slightly controversial, not in its ID which is certain, but for the fact that the reservoir is "off limits". Public viewing is limited to very long-range views across the reservoir. Rights to the access are owned by TATA steel sailing club and some fishermen. Early visitors to see the bird who went on site were escorted off-site by security and local police! Since then a semi-truce seems to have settled in. On one day two nice local police ladies apparently let birders onto the site as long as they behaved. The issue seems to be worst at weekends and with the fishermen. The birders underground had also worked out an access route to get past the gate and onto the reservoir without being seen. So, armed with this information I set out early and ploughed through all the roadworks on the M4 to get to the site by 8.15.

The weather had been awful with really heavy rain storms in Wales and it didn't look hopeful as I pulled into Margam Cemetery where you could park your car. By the time I'd had a coffee the clouds had lifted a bit and it wasn't actually raining so I pulled on my full wet-weather gear and set out. I won't go into detail about how but a 15 minute walk got me onto the bank of the reservoir.

There was absolutely no one else around - no birders, no fishermen and no boaters. What I could see were a few ducks, some grebes including a rather smart Slavonian and in the distance a larger shape low in the water. 

Divers have a very distinctive shape and there was no doubt this was one. For the next thirty minutes or so that I was there it moved up and down the bank fishing, often only a few yards off allowing for some crippling views.

This is a 1st winter bird and should be in Canada. I've seen them over there many times but this is a first for the UK for me and gets me the "set" of divers you can see over here. Although it was the only diver reported on the reservoir I did a quick check to make sure it actually was the right sort!

Pacific divers are a smaller diver with a relatively small bill - so you can rule our great-northern and white-billed. The bill is straight without a noticeable up-tick, the forehead quite-sharp and a relatively large amount of black on the neck. This rules out red-throated. Finally, there is no white thigh-patch visible when swimming, which is characteristic of black-throated. So, I was happy this was indeed the correct bird. 

The light was awful for photography and the wind was blowing up waves and ruffling the birds feathers. It seemed happy enough though diving for fish and was clearly not concerned in the least bit about the nutter standing in the rain on the bank peering down at it! As another rain cloud moved in and a few locals drove down the track to the clubhouse I decided it was time to leave. 

A really good trip taking me to 395 on my UK list. Cant see any more lifers this year but 400 must be doable by Spring time next year.