It’s pouring with rain again here in the UK (and I’ve been feeling absolutely exhausted after a bout of ‘instant weight loss the viral way’ which has seen me tied to our bathroom for the last few days), so in the absence of any birding here today I thought I’d post a few photos instead of a rather lovely bird I caught up with when I went down to Portland and Weymouth last weekend: a drake Hooded Merganser Lophodytes cucullatus, that’s been paddling around with the local Mallards since - well, since last June actually!

Yes, another instant twitch from yours truly (a pattern that began with going to see a cracking male Dark-throated Thrush in Wales three months after it was first found, and continued with a rather lonely-looking Franklin’s Gull in Hampshire that had been hanging around wondering where on Earth all its mates had gone a whole season after it was first found), but given the cost of petrol and that I’ve seen hundreds in the US I didn’t see the need to rush.

However, last week I was going to be within a few miles of the ‘Hoodie’ anyway, the sun was shining, and I thought I may as well go have a look. Which, all in all, is a rather disrespectful way to approach seeing what has to be one of the most beautiful ducks on the planet (which is saying something when you think about how utterly gorgeous some ducks are). But when you look at the photos that emerged when the bird first appeared you might be able to understand my reticence (certainly the local birders were more sceptical than enthused when it was found bobbing up and down in the hardly typical confines of a storm-drain that summer evening).

1st summer male Hooded Merganser, 07 June 2008. Photo copyright Martin Cade.
Taken with permission from the Portland Bird Observatory website, June 2008.

Hmm. A water-logged, bedraggled grey duck barely afloat in a storm-drain is hardly motivation for an adrenalised charge all the way to the south coast is it?

 

But, my, how fast they grow up (as I’m becoming wont to say as I hit middle-age). That tatty 1st summer bird back in June has transformed into a very handsome adult thanks to a bit of much-needed moult and regrowth. Look at it now!

Adult male Hooded Merganser, Radipole Lake, 19 October 2008.

Absolutely beautiful. You know when I was a kid growing up in the UK and dreaming of perhaps one day birding abroad (!) Hooded Mergansers were right up there at the top of my “most want to see” birds, and - though 1st summer drakes don’t quite float my boat in the same way as an adult does - they still are. It’s elegant, petite, streamlined. I love that extravagant splash of vermiculated chocolate-brown along its flanks, the way the lanceolate tertials add a dash of bravado to the inky black of the closed wing. And who could fail to be entranced by a crest of feathers that opens up like a shockingly-white fan when this titchy submersible wants to stand up to the larger denizens of the pond. You just have to admire its spirit (even though you get the feeling that one thud from a Mallard’s beak would send it scarpering to the far reaches of this particular waterway).

 

 

The big question everyone down here is asking is whether this bird could possibly be a vagrant rather than an escape from a wildfowl collection somewhere?

Hooded Mergansers are regularly found in the UK, and many North American waterfowl do cross the Atlantic (Lesser Scaups and Ring-necked Ducks are sometimes even found in small flocks), but vagrancy in June would be very unusual - most birds haven’t begun migrating so early, and the winds needed to force strong fliers like ducks over such a distance are usually absent in early summer. This bird could have been in the UK long before it was found in June of course, but most UK Hooded Mergansers are considered to be escapes: in fact the decision to admit the species to the British List was only taken by the British Ornithologists Union (BOU) in June of this year. In a statement put out on the BOU website, they explained their decision thus:

Immature or female, Oban Trumisgarry, North Uist, Outer Hebrides 23 October – 1 November 2000 The British Ornithologists’ Union Records Committee (BOURC) has admitted Hooded Merganser Lophodytes cucullatus to Category A of the British List following a review of the occurrence of a female or immature at Oban Trumisgarry, North Uist, Outer Hebrides, from 23 October until 1 November 2000 (sight record, photographed). Hooded Merganser has an extensive breeding range throughout wooded areas of the east and Pacific Northwest of North America. Its primary winter range includes the south-eastern United States for eastern birds and the Pacific coast north of California for western birds. In addition to records from the Azores, there are three accepted records (of four individuals) from Ireland, and there have been records of apparent vagrants from Iceland and the Canary Islands. Bob McGowan, Chairman of BOURC, commented “Hooded Merganser has had a particularly troubled route through various categories of the British List, but this only emphasises the complexities in assessing genuine vagrancy in waterfowl, particularly with species which exhibit moderate to high escape potential. For example, the National Waterfowl Census revealed that 206 Hooded Mergansers were hatched in Britain in 2001 so caution was justifiable. Since 2000, documented occurrences in the Azores, the Canaries and Iceland, as well as from Newbiggin in 2002 (British Birds 96: 606) and Shetland in 2006 (British Birds 100: 752), have demonstrated a tendency of increasing natural vagrancy, probably a consequence of the species’ better fortune in North America. Largely as a result of this evidence, BOURC voted unanimously to admit Hooded Merganser to Category A of the British List.” From http://newsbou.blogspot.com/2008_06_01_archive.html

No doubt this particular Hoodie will be already starting its tortuous journey towards ‘acceptance’ or ‘rejection’. Many people who ‘need’ it for their British list will be awaiting the decision keenly. I’m the first to admit that for many years I’d have been one of those birders fervently hoping that it would get the official nod, but it does seem a shame that in the end a decision on its status made by the BOU will be of more importance to some birders than how it looks. Because no matter where it came from (and where it’s going to), it really is one hugely handsome little fella…

This post has been submitted to Bird Photography Weekly #9…go check it out!