Ring-necked Duck was first recorded in Berkshire in 1959. A drake, at Burghfield GP, was then only the second record for Great Britain.  "The Birds of Berkshire" only records one more - in the late 70s. There have, however, been others in the county since its publication and they have been almost annual in the last decade -  this bird is the tenth for the county

Aythyas are famously promiscuous and so what may appear to be a particular species can, on detailed examination, be identified as a hybrid. So as soon as I found it [late afternoon] I called Marek and he came, in fading light, to have a look. I had been able to get a few photos of the bird but it was always distant and moving (it would swim out of shot while the 995 was still trying to focus!). By the time Marek arrived the sun was very low (and yellowy-orange in colour)

Neither of our sets of photos are fantastic and it's always a worry until the county expert in the field of aythya hybrids can confirm the parentage! The ID hung in the balance until CDRH verified it as a RND after viewing it at SSF a few days later

You can see something of the eponymous collar [Aythya collaris] on this bird in the shot of it rising out of the water with open wing
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