The Eastbourne Threesome!

 With eye-popping pictures appearing  all over the internet of various Divers loitering in Eastbourne Harbour it felt like a good idea to head there this morning, the weather forecast was ok, rain clearing about 8 o'clock then sunny. To be honest I wasn't confident I've lost count of the times that birds have been showing well all week when I'm at work before buggering off as soon as I open the car door!!!😲😢

I arrived at 7.45, it was raining, the car park machine wouldn't play ball so I had to relocate to a different car park, things however improved, the weather cleared up as predicted  and I made it to the harbour in good time, even had a Diver flyby over the sea on the walk in!! Not much small stuff on the beach or rocks couple of Pied Wagtails the best of it. With a couple of Great Crested Grebes on the Sea.

Eastbourne

Pied Wagtail

Great Crested Grebe

I passed the Martello and scanned the Harbour, there was a distant blob that through the bins looked a lot like a Great Northern Diver and then a bird popped up to the surface right in front of me!! Red-throated Diver!! result!!😃 Was still gloomy so a pics a bit grainy but you can tell what it is!!

Red-throated Diver

I dragged myself away, with the intention of getting closer to the GND however it had drifted right over the other side, so I changed plans and thought I would have a look for the Guillemot reported in the inner harbour, good decision there were two!!! They were close in but was still dull so that's my excuse for the poor pics (don't worry the sun comes out soon and the pics get slightly better!!)

Guillemot

Look at this baby!!

Obviously not impressed

There were another couple of birders present, they informed me that the Black-throated Diver was also in the Inner Harbour, much thanks, a quick scan and picked it up on the other side of the marina!! So at this point I made the decision to walk around to the other end, I made it in the full knowledge that by the time I got there the bird would almost certainly have moved to the exact place I was now!! It did!! Although at this point I did find another Guillemot!! 

Guillemot

I walked back from whence I came, the Diver had drifted out again slightly but managed a few pics in the gloom!! The bird had a something hanging  from it's bill, not sure what it was but there was some weed on it, however by the time I left it seemed to have gone so what ever it was must have been dislodged!

Black-throated Diver

So all three Divers seen, the sun came out at this point which was an improvement, I spent the next couple of hours following Divers about, boy they can cover a lot of ground however by hook or crook and quite frankly a lot of luck, I managed some better picks of all three, which can be seen below, I will control myself on the number posted, 2648 pictures taken today so I'm showing a lot of restraint!!

Red-throated Diver

Great Northern Diver

Black-throated Diver

BT with it's mates!

Fair enough didn't really show much restraint there but what a bird!!

Guillemot

A few other bits from the Harbour

Cormorants a few about but largely ignored in the Diver frenzy

My next Boat

Great Crested Grebes

In position to rescue me if I ever get my hands on the boats above

So after approximately 3 hours playing with the Divers I headed back to the car, There were a few Meadow Pipits about, a Rock Pipit that I couldn't get a pic of, another couple of red-throated Divers and a Great Crested Grebe on the sea!

Meadow Pipit

GC Grebe

Eastbourne in better light!

Proper Red-throated Divers on the rough sea!!!

That was that decided to pop into Polegate to see if I could find the Hooded Crow and I did!! I even managed to resist the lure of MacDonald's delicious Pancakes!! Was only there 10 minutes, gotta love a Hoodie but didn't seem right not being in Scotland!!!

A satisfactory end to the morning!!