Amarous Anatids Cont.: Unrequited?

I'd recommend large ("L") as this narrow format makes it too small otherwise...

*Sigh* I was resolved to blip something quite different today (and took some photos of a great café that I visited with friend), but then visited Wandsworth Common on my way home, and this poor tufted duck is still desperately trying to impress this female mallard (as described in my blip yesterday). This photo doesn't actually show his behaviour as well as others I took as he is usually much closer to her (squeezing between her and her two male mallard suitors), but this one is the most aesthetically pleasing with its colours and reflections. He'd just been nipped by the male mallard in shot so ended up further ahead than usual...

Poor little thing, but I'm less certain that he's out of the running than I was yesterday: tufted duck x mallard hybrids are not unknown (one example is shown here), 'though it is rather extreme (given than they are of different genera!). Anatids do hybridise much more readily than most groups of animals, and mallard hybrids in particular are very common.

In other anatid news, I saw Mrs. Goosle today! I've not seen her for a few weeks as she's sitting on a nest (I assume) and today she was looking very thin and eating ravenously; she then flew back to the island on Eagle Pond and disappeared when I turned away for a few seconds... I think she must have a hiding hole on the island in which she's nesting. The fact that she left the nest had me excited... I wonder when the goslings will emerge! (Eeeep)