Please close the windows before leaving the hide

First stop today was the petrol station - Yesterday's wee jaunt cost £79 - well you can't take it with you.

So today rather than burning petrol today I burned boot leather. I'd heard there may be the chance of finding a Ruddy Duck at a specific location, but it was a large area to cover as I had no idea where it may be. Well my first photo of the day was taken in the car park at 11:53 and finally got my first photo of the Ruddy Duck at 14:58 in between there was a lot of walking and a lot of scanning through loads of ducks. I'd amassed an impressive day list of wildfowl before eventually finding the one I was after: Little grebe, Great Crested grebe, Mute swan, Greylag goose, Greater Canada Goose, Shelduck, Mallard, Gadwall, Pintail, Shoveler, Wigeon, Teal, Pochard, Tufted duck, Goldeneye, Smew, Goosander, Moorhen & Coot.

I'm afraid that taking photos into a setting sun at 14:58 isn't going to get you a decent photo, but RCB's quite content just to get a Ruddy Duck as after the gun-toting, EU kowtowing DEFRA reduced Ruddy duck numbers in the UK to 120 by cull.

If you've not heard about the cull then there's two sides to every story - you can read a well balanced article by LGRE or you can read the EU kowtowing government propaganda from DEFRA.

I of course am completely neutral on the issue, simply providing the information for you to make up your own mind.