Coming in from the cold

IN January 2007, a strange bird was seen on the sea off Farnham in Yorkshire.

It was clearly a member of the diver family, four species of which were on the British and Irish bird lists, but this individual looked somewhat odd. The definitive Collins Bird Guide did not feature the bird. Nor should it have done so: the visitor had come from the far side of the world.

Pacific divers move to inland lakes to breed but seldom travel very far from the sea. How, then, did this bird get to Europe? Had it flown across the landmasses of North America or Asia? Not very likely. Its presence remained an enigma. Then two more Pacific divers turned up, one off Cornwall, the other off Pembrokeshire. A sighting, last January, off the Clare coast near Ballyvaughan added the species to the Irish list. This, or another individual, has reappeared and is still there.