White-billed Diver

Books will now describe this as 'yellow-billed loon' but bodies like the British Trust for Ornithology still call it by the wbd name. I don't know why the title was changed. Sometimes British names are, perhaps, seen as presumptuous because they suggest that the British bird is the only one of its type- ie robin or wren, while somewhere like North America has many species of wren etc. But the change names don't seem to take with birdwatchers- I don't suppose anyone here will call wrens 'winter wrens', which is a dumb name anyway. I do wonder if the 'loon' name was brought to North America by northern Scots as 'loon' can be a wetland here or a young man in Aberdeenshire and the Mearns. This bird is pretty rare and has been around Scapa beach and pier for some days. Unfortunately, it is a bit oiled. It may survive if it hasn't ingested oil while trying to preen and rid itself of the oil.