Long-tailed Duck

A small window in the weather gave me the opportunity to twitch the female Long-tailed Duck reported to be in the lagoons at the Hayling Island oyster beds. As I parked up I could see three birders in the distance, peering into the gloom. Lifted by the possibility of the bird being present my walking pace increased. As I approached I received a cheery wave from Russ Tofts who informed that the bird had just disappeared, had the jinx struck again?? Not a bit of it, some minutes later he relocated the bird - thanks Russ.  The bird was fairly mobile, so in the company of another birder, I moved further out on the sea wall and found it feeding closer to the wall in the adjacent lagoon, giving me the chance to obtain some decent record shots.



 

An all too frequent view



The heavens opened ..... time to go.

Some time later I was joined by  the "Financial Birder",  see his cracking blog here. Unfortunately the bird had disappeared so Jeff made his way further along the coast. I wandered off with the intent of looking for the Little Owl but changed my mind and re-joined Jeff who immediately located the bird. Although it came toward us it never came as close as previous. Nice to meet you Jeff.

The stygian clouds that had been dumping masses of rain on Fareham and Portsmouth arrived over Hayling and it was time to beat a hasty retreat home. I did have a quick look for the Little Owl by the old railway track but nothing found .....one day!

Update:

I received information from Jos Hooijmeijer of the University of Groningen that "Ruff B1WAWR" was ringed on the 1st January 2001 in Southwest Friesland and that my sighting report on the 25th September 2013 at Oare Marshes was the first received for this bird.

 

Another mystery is the fungi that I photographed close to Budd's Farm Sewage Works, none of my fungi books, including the latest Collins output, have anything similar. If you have any idea I would be grateful for an answer.