winter sun and wildfowl

 a few wildfowl from a very windy day -- all with the new Canon R6II and the 400DO2 plus 2x converter

Pochard and Tufted Duck drakes

could be local breeder but could be heading for Russia soon -- who knows

female Pochard resurfaces

first saw this bird on May 5th on water's Edge with a drake suggesting that she was probably breeding; not seen her since but reappeared in same area tonight with no brood so presumably failed; she was ringed and saddled at St Philbert de Grand Lieu near Nantes on November 25th 2015

Pochard failing the bread test

well not actually bread because the kids at Waters' Edge are encouraged to buy bags of wheat to feed to the ducks; so whenever a potentially wild / rare duck turns up at a slightly dodgy location, ie one frequented by lots of people, we have the debate over whether it came to bread -- locally Pochard occur on most of the  pits and are pretty unapproachable but on Waters' Edge some of their number have realised that a few screaming children represent no threat and the free grain on offer means you can feed within 6 feet of human beings stood on a boardwalk above you -- there are also plenty of escaped Tufted Ducks doing the same thing -- so no hard and fast rules birds do what they want when they want

Pochard

flying Pochard

all about the light as usual

flying Pochards

Long-tailed Duck and Pochards

the LTD showing well today -- these first summer birds always seem to get lethargic come April -- maybe just turning into typical teenagers sleeping 95% of the day