Great Northern Diver
12th November 2008, Wednesday
This bird came from the Ashford ring road! The finder who brought it in to us at RSPCA Mallydams thought it was a black rubbish bag and ran over it with the centre of the car. After he had run it over, he looked back and saw it pop its head up. He then stopped and picked it up. He rang several organisations without any joy, but then rang the RSPB at Dungeness, who were very helpful and put him in touch with us. He said when he picked it up it was dazed and he said he even stroked its head. When I picked it up from the boot of his car it was wild and stabbing at everything. It must have used the head down predator response when the car approached, otherwise it would have been killed. We then put it onto one of our pools for 4 hours to test its waterproofing, ringed it and released it yesterday at 4pm on Castle Water. Today it was seen on the Long Pit.
Richard Thompson, RSPCA Mallydams