Unfortunately, the grebe wasn't very cooperative, and seemed reluctant to get within an "interesting" distance of the shore. It also seemed to be ignoring the nice calm water just off the southern shore, preferring the rougher conditions off the west bank. When it decided to head off N towards the causeway, I thought it was time to try for the Great Northern Divers which I expected to find in the SE corner of F1. En route I once again came across Badger and some other birders looking at the Sandwich Tern which had changed buoys and was now on F1, but too far off the causeway for reasonable DSLR shots. A wait for the bird to fly ended with it doing just that, but instead of flying towards us and over the causeway it headed away and did a circuit of F1 before disappearing into the distance back over F2. With little to show so far for my time, I headed across the causeway to the SE corner, where both GNDs were really close in but they moved away before I could get onto them.
A longer wait was then needed for one of them to show reasonably close. During this time, I had a brief view of what must have been a Yellow Wagtail, as well as two Grey's and some Swallows.
Great Northern Diver. Click here for larger image.
After the divers drifted away, I returned along the causeway and again found the Sandwich Tern on a buoy on F1. It quickly flew off, but this time I managed a brief shot of it before it moved out of range onto F2.
Sandwich Tern
Returning to the grebe's patch, I found three other photographers in place but the bird was being slightly more obliging than this morning.
Red-necked Grebe. Click here for larger image
So eventually a successful visit, over a period of about 6 hours!
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