Gorgeous Grunting Gadwall

The man I met at Amwell yesterday told me that he had seen Jack snipes at RSPB Rye Meads. I've only seen and photographed one of these bobbing birds once and I wasn't very close.

After a horrid stop-start journey on the M25 to Fleet in Hampshire to see Tom at TGM Sport Racing about what to do about my ailing Honda S2000, I decided to go to Rye Meads after lunch.

No sign of the Jack snipes. I ended up in The Kingfisher Hide shooting gadwall ducks. These are various shades of grey but their plumage is incredibly beautifully marked. Two pairs were happily dabbling together but three drakes were pursuing a lone female. It sounded to me as though they were shouting, "Babe! Babe!" in a very low grunting quack. :) Babe wasn't amused and was shouting back at them in much more ladylike tone. 

As there was nobody about I was in the ground level part of the hide designed for the disabled. I like to be at the birds' level rather than above.
Just before I left a kingfisher landed on the post nearest to the hide with a fish in its mouth. My low angle meant I couldn't get the camera to focus through the reeds. :(