Oiled Red Throated Diver Snettisham February 08

1st 2 pictures Cropped hand held images. All others taken with the usual combination of Digital Camera and Telescope. DIVER, initially reported as GREAT NORTHERN but clearly a RED THROAT.Unfortunately an oiled bird, as evident in the big dark stain on the underside. Swimming and feeding, but spending a lot of time hauled out on the side of a small fishing lake. A visit to the RSPB Reserve produced the expected mix of waders and wildfowl. A stop at Welney on the way up had plenty of Whooper Swans on the approach roads and on the reserve,as well as the Bean Geese viewable from the main Observatory.Searching through the flocks of swans on the way in failed to produce the local COMMON CRANE. Instead, it came into the reserve in failing light, and settled among the roosting Swans. This leads on to my regular moan and Bug-Bear - hides designed by people who clearly never use them, and make sure that anyone who does ends up irritated and frustrated by flaps that are too low/high /narrow and placed at the most inconvenient level possible. Having picked up the Crane flying into the reserve, the height and placing of the viewing flaps ensured that others struggled to see it, even with my Telescope set up for them - visitors who had stayed on the reserve, and in the hide in the hope of seeing the Crane were not happy and as unimpressed as I was with poor design - something hardly likely to encourage returning visitors.