Great Northern Diver (Gavia immer)

This spring has given me a "hat trick" of "Loons" (how I hate that word!). Red-throated and Black-throated Divers were present in the tidal lagoon at Ria de Alvor for one day only but too distant to photograph.

On one of my early morning dog walks around the Ria I saw a Great Northern Diver close-in to shore and had good enough views to age it as a 2nd c.y. juvenile. The tide was falling and by the time I had got home and returned with the camera the bird had receded into deeper water  -  this is a heavy crop of an image taken at about 200 metres.