Hooded Merganser

A spectacular male Hooded Merganser was found at Streamstown Bay, Clifden, Co. Galway on 25/9/2018.  I got to see the bird two days later and managed to get some distant shots.   Back home later that evening I discovered what appeared to be a metal ring showing on the right leg in two of the flight shots.  I learned the following day that two other birders has subsequently made similar observations.  Unfortunately this has cast doubts on the origins of the bird, not withstanding the fact that it turned up on the west coast in the middle of migration season.

Apparently a few thousand Hooded Mergansers are ringed annually on the eastern side of America, so it's not beyond the bounds of possibility that a ringed wild bird could turn up on these shores. It would be a great tick to get but it seems more likely that the IRBC will treat the record as one of bird of unknown origin.