A Day in Holme Pierrepont, Nottinghamshire - Part 2

So with one new year tick and a lifer to boot under my belt, I then set off for the bonus bird.  A 1st-winter male Long-tailed Duck had been reported on the main rowing course in front of the Watersports Centre.

On the way round from the white-water slalom course I stopped briefly to chat with a birder with a scope, asking him if he'd seen the duck.  He had but form the other side of the water, but couldn't relocate it now with his scope.  However, he informed me that it was diving repeatedly and was very close to the jetty.

I drove round, parked up and then made my way to the jetty in front of the Watersports Centre.  From a distance I could see that the person who had been photographing the Spotted Sandpiper with me on the white-water slalom course was already on the edge of the water with his camera.

The Long-tailed Duck was bobbing around just a few metres in front of him giving excellent views.  I soon joined him and was firing shots away.  The bird would repeatedly dive for about 30 seconds and then resurface, look around for a bit and dive again.  On average I had about 20 seconds or so to get a shot. The sun quite low and harsh by now, so I underexposed all my shots in the hope of not blowing the whites in the birds plumage and so losing detail.  This has saturated the colours somewhat, but given nice detail.

After fifteen minutes or so the other chap left but I decided to hang around for a while longer.  Just before I was going to leave the duck dived down and caught something - I couldn't tell what it was at first, but from the photographs (and after much discussion on Facebook) I have now been reliably informed that this is a Bullhead fish. Needless to say, I'm very pleased with this image.