Another mystery bird!

["Fam. de Wijs" rombout_de_wijs]

Dear Romillyh,

This is a Moorhen. Rails on migration or dispersing do so at night and
perform calls trying to contact others. Since quite some birders do not know
these calls well and were wondering what such UFO-birds might be, some Dutch
birders have in the 1960's considered Long-eared Owl an option. This tale
went on and on and nowadays is difficult to get eradicated.

This applies to both Moorhen and Coot, your bird was a Moorhen. I tried to
explain this, especially for Coot, on a website some time ago, see
http://www.home.zonnet.nl/myotis/owlcoot.htm. The Dutch version of this site
has been updated since, but this English version has not yet, but will, I
hope, explain things a bit more.

Rombout de Wijs