Amarous Anatids

Better in large ("L"): shovelers are another bird with surprising iridescence.

I'm blipping this pair of shovelers because it was my brightest and most cheerful picture of the afternoon: I visited Wandsworth Common to see if Mr. and Mrs. Pochard were there (no, and although there was a lot of life on the pond, the sky was very grey and the light was flat which rather took the life out of my photographs...

Aw, the adorable but tragic story of the day was a male tufted duck totally besotted by a female mallard: he was racing around with her (and two male mallards) desperately trying to impress her. He was making his cute little chirruping courtship noise insistently and squeezing in between her and her two male mallard chaperones. Tufted ducks are much smaller than mallards so he was really having to put in a lot of effort to maintain his position. It was all totally lost on her, yet he continued in vain.

It was so tragic; I hope that he manages to move on...