counting coots

We are an excitable lot aren't we?  The interweb has gone bonkers for Tufted Puffins.  Hardly suprising really.  Flippantly many London birders (including myself) stated that they would be staking out the Thames as the bird in Kent had been seen flying west (which is right up the mouth of the river for those with minimal geographical awareness), and I suspect that many would be checking out the river a little more intently than usual if they see it during the commute.  I cannot claim to be any different, I had a few minutes outside this morning and there were plenty of birds on the river.  Many of them were mainly dark, and some had white bits on them.  No matter how hard I looked at them they all seemed to steadfastly remain as Cormorants and Grebes. 

Until there was something dark in the distance.  Just moving round a bend in the river.  It dived, and was not like anything I had seen in the last couple of weeks here, nor anything that could be expected in that part of the river really.  Could it be?  Could it?

Yes it could.