Plastic or plausible?

Despite the grim weather I joined the steady trickle of birders who've visited Whetsted Gravel Pits to see the Hooded Merganser found by Marcus Lawson. I must have driven past the Radipole bird at least half a dozen times without going to see it and it’s probably hard to see that this one has much better credentials. On the positive side the previous Kent bird at Chilham in 2005 was accepted so maybe it’s OK if they're in Kent. If nothing incriminating is found (like a mass break out from a collection) I suspect that acceptance will depend on whether it’s still hanging around come summer. I would in no way encourage anyone to pay a visit armed with an air rifle at the end of March.

Very smart bird, not as bright as some I've seen in the States (although the weather didn’t help) but some of the photos on Surfbirds show nice bright white in the tertials and a strong greater covert bar so I assume it’s an adult. The tertial ground colour looked dark brown rather than black but that could have been a result of the poor light. I found this which shows the features of adult and immature Hoodie wings, with the overall patterning on the bird being pretty close to the adult female shown. This bird also showed a lot more yellow on the bill than the Chilham bird.

It was diving pretty constantly, frequently catching a variety of food and bringing it back to the surface to swallow. This was the most typical view of it.

It was sharing the pit with, among others, a Goldeneye and a pair of displaying Great Crested Grebes while the other pit had a male Smew.