The Bufflehead duck is still at the campus lochans, and I managed to catch a few pictures of it this morning. What a laugh to watch it in action, after someone had been feeding the other ducks. I'd imagined one so small would have been bullied by the much larger Mallard. Not in the least. As the fervour died down a bit, it started diving for all the food that had gone to the bottom of the lochan. It also started chasing all the remaining Mallard off by swimming rapidly towards any in the vicinity, diving when within two to three metres, and swimming even faster underwater to torpedo them from underneath! It did that for a good ten minutes.

When I left work this evening, there was a big crowd of folk with camouflaged jackets, tripods, telescopes, binoculars, cameras with huge lenses, etc., by the lower lochan. Word had obviously reached the Twitcher/Birder community about our little American visitor.