Loony times

02 Oct 2013 Red-throated Diver by Edmund Fellowes

Although a scarce breeder in Britain and Ireland, Red-throated Divers can be seen in reasonably large numbers in late September and early October, as birds from more northerly breeding grounds move south to winter in less inhospitable areas. At this time of year a few individuals still have the dapper red throat of breeding plumage, though most will be in their non-breeding garb, with a clean white neck and face that are often very conspicuous, even at distance.

Divers are also known as loons, a word thought to have derived from the Swedish 'lom', the Old Norse or Icelandic 'lómr' or the Old Dutch 'loen', all of which mean lame or clumsy. Divers are highly adapted for underwater hunting and their feet are set well back on the body, so 'loon' is probably a reference to the difficulty that all divers have in moving about on land as a consequence. As for 'rain goose', this is a term used in Orkney and Shetland in deference to the species' supposed weather-predicting capabilities.



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