Divers Galore

I went over to Hampton Pier this morning as it was high tide hoping to see the purple sandpipers of which there were three roosting on the rocks with a group of redshank. There wasn't much else but I stayed for a couple of hours watching small groups of red-throated divers going east all morning. I noticed another birder sat in his car which turned out to be Mark C. and together we counted 64 red-throats, 1 razorbill and lastly two magnificent great northern divers on the sea not far offshore. They fed on crabs and  drifted east past the pier towards the H/Bay pier. Cormorants were numerous, possibly 200, again going east in large parties, maybe to the roost on the end of H/Bay pier.

A distant record shot of one of the GNDs who stayed together feeding on crabs

Just as I was packing my gear in the boot Mark shouted 'Med gull' which had just flown in onto the beach. Mark had a loaf of bread which came in handy as we enticed the gulls over for a photo shoot.