Ring-necked Duck - a new species for Hordaland

This morning I got an e-mail from fellow birder Ola Moen with a picture of a drake Ring-necked Duck. The e-mail was sent from his mobile phone, and he said "this is a Ring-Necked Duck, right?". I replied "yes, where is it?". This Nearctic species has never been recorded in Hordaland county before, so I was refreshing my e-mail continously during the next half hour. Eventually, Ola called me and could tell that the bird was feeding in a small ice-free patch in a lake north of Bergen. It was time to leave the home office.

There has been a couple of previous records of hybrid Tufted x Ring-necked Duck in the county, but this was the real thing. Ring-necked Duck is a true rarity in Norway, with only 33 records up to and including 2014. It was an awaited species in Hordaland county. We have been scanning for the species in Tufted Duck groups for ages. The star of the day did not have to share any attention with other birds. It was all by itself, and not in a party of other Aythya's as expected.

The ice free patch on the lake was tiny. We observed the bird from a road about 100 meters away, and it did not seem to be disturbed by the enthusiastic twitchers.