Hybrid Theory

Oh ye Gods and Little Fishes, I had some fun today.


So I was trying to buy something in the sales and failed miserably, but I also got to take a look around the Harbour and oh what a bird I did see.

It was very choppy out in the Bay, and only 1 Razorbill was noted, but a nice GND came into the Outer Harbour [then buggered off when a jetskier came through...]. 8 Purple Sands and 4 Turnstones [plus Rockits and Pied Wags] were about the Real Living Coast and Shags were all about the Harbours.

However, the bird of which I speak was in the Outer Harbour, tarting about the main channel and towards the slipway. A diver. A big brown diver with a dark halfcollar its darkest bit. A chunky diver with pale markings on its nape. A diver with a visible eye and a rather chunky pale bill....

Surely this was the bird off Blackball yesterday.

It was very hard to keep up with. Actually, that's an understatement. It was an utter git. Passers-by must have had a right laugh [or a worried check for the number of the loony bin], I reckon...

So, I tried very hard and got very cold to get these pitiful excuses;

Head-on.

Pale face and big bulge visible-ish

Rear-on.

Dark collar clear but pale markings less so, alas.

These pics really don't do the bird justice. You have to see it if you're anywhere near, trust me.


It is not, I must stress, a White-billed Diver.

However, it is the oddest, biggest, WBD-est 2w GND I have ever seen.

It's even better than the one that was knocking around Brixham with the 2013 WBD. The bill is even [and I assume it's some wear effect] a bit white. It seems to have ivory-like sides with gunmetal atop culmen and below mandible. The whole effect of the bird is to seem halfway between the 2 species.

So, is there any record of diver hybridisation?


I'm just wondering...