The Red-necked Phalarope was a gap in the county list for many Buckinghamshire birders. That all changed on Sunday 7th June 2020 at about 07:10 when Little Marlow regular Adam Bassett saw a male land on the west side of the sand spit. He quickly put news out to the county birders and with 20 minutes several local birders were on site with a steady flow of birders arriving during the morning.


The bird fortunately mainly fed along the west side of the sand spit which is much closer than the east side and it fed quite happily moving up and down most of the morning. It was harassed from time to time by Coots but generally just flew a short distance. It did swim from time to time as it picked insects off of the water.
Photography was difficult given the distance to such a small bird and the light conditions.


A video of the bird can be found at https://twitter.com/Adamdbassett/status/1269724081076699136
At 09:18 the bird was seen to fly off high and it was thought to have gone. However it returned just after 10:00 and stayed until 11:53 when it was seen to fly off.
The above photos are courtesy of Adam Bassett (1 &3) and Paul Watts (2 & 4).