A Great Northern Diver at Stanstead Innings

17th November 2023

On the 13th November Barry Reed found a Great Northern Diver at Stanstead Innings and it was still there today, and by the way it was feeding is likely to stay for some time. Mainly keeping its distance and often into the light it was quite tricky to photograph but here are a selection of what I managed to get.

It was hoovering up the American Signal Crayfish at the rate of one per dive, but I suspect it will take more than a single Great Northern Diver to make an impression on the crayfish population here. The Signal Crayfish were unwittingly introduced into the UK in the 1970s and has decimated the population of our only native White-clawed Crayfish as they carry a disease to which our native species has no natural protection.