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Any ideas? - Irvine Coast, Ayrshire, Scotland (1 Viewer)

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An Otter, a piece of driftwood or even Lord Lucan perhaps!!!

People are kidding themselves I think when they try to ID a photo of this quality:-O
 
Got the photo up on magnified later this evening. And kept coming back to it. Letting it stew for a few hours.
Then I decided to do a rough "field sketch", with annotations of what seemed to be the most identifiable features on a very "noisey"/fuzzy photo. Only influenced by what I felt I could pick out as main features amidst the noise.
I was also aware of Dave's descriptive details. Which are very good and contained in his posts through this thread.
I was watching a Great Northern last December which had caught a huge fish, and came to the surface to process it. It had already swallowed it, and it altered the throat and neck shape markedly. I feel that this bird also has swallowed a large fish, making its profile look highly irregular in the mid to lower throat region. I, of course do not think this is a Great Northern.
I simply supply my little sketch and annotations, and leave you all to see if you can see what I see in the fuzzy image. Back that up with Dave's comments on the actual bird, and maybe you'll come to the same conclusion as myself.
But, for now, I'm not saying a word! :cat:

EDIT: Magnify the original pic and place it side by side with the sketch for a comparison.
 

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Phil, you need to get out more.....;)

We can debate this bird for ever...there is not enough there to positively ID it beyond all doubt.

Mark
 
i would place my bets on cormorant as as i can just see a litle bit of yellow below the bill but there is certainly not enough there to positively id it
 
Wow. Far more interest in this than I could have expected from such a lousy shot. Thanks to Phil especially!
Like Nessy, this is, I fear, one that got away. But I'll still feel happy with my memories of a bird which, when I got a view through the scope rather than shakily holding a mobile to the eyepiece, looked like a Diver!!
8-P
 
Well, I'm impressed by Phil's sketch - the kind of note-taking that is sadly being lost these days, it seems.

I think I've got some sort of fault with my computer, though - his sketch and the photo bear no resemblance to each other, no matter how much I magnify! :( The pose is similar, but the Cormorant has a pretty level head, is swallowing a fish, and has a few feathers being blown up by the wind. It also has no white anywhere except the square cheek patch by its gular patch..??? Is anyone else seeing this, or are you all seeing a diver with a white throat and dark upperside, not a uniform glossy bluish-green as a Cormorant has?

I'm a bit worried now...
 
Having said all that I have, I know photos are very misleading, and if Dave is sure it was a diver, then I believe him. The photo just looks identical to a Cormorant. What can you do?

[[Take sketches and notes and forget this photo game, maybe? ::Gasp!:: Heresy!]] ;)
 
The brain will always try to make sense of what it is seeing!
That's why I did the rough sketch. To illustrate what my mind was making out of the fuzzy image. I didn't come from a "I'll make it look like what I think it is" perspective. I just re-interpretated into a sketch what I was seeing.
It was just an exercise. With no ID as a result! Just an interpretation...
My brain could, however, not see a Cormorant.
I tried to make it into one, but could not.
Guess we're all just different, and if we were all the same, this would be a very boring forum! ;)
 
just to join Phil - here's what I 'see' - the Cormorant, but just for fun, what i don't see - the BT Diver. The mind shapes things and creates more missing information than we'd like to admit.
 

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just to join Phil - here's what I 'see' - the Cormorant, but just for fun, what i don't see - the BT Diver. The mind shapes things and creates more missing information than we'd like to admit.

Well done you! :t:

Actually I think it proves I may be clinically insane... ;)

PS Who mentioned BTDiver anyway? I had my money on Anhinga! :D
 
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Guess we're all just different, and if we were all the same, this would be a very boring forum! ;)

Hear hear!

I think it was someone on the first page with the BT Diver? Seems so long ago now.... ;)

Anhinga! Of course! How could I have not realised?!? :-O :-O
 
Am I the only one who sees the white throat markings? Either way we'll never really know. Interesting post though.
 
Well I agree about the vertical stripe on the throat. Here is a last effort at the photograph, with massive enlargement and smart sharpening applied in photoshop...
 

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