Sit and wonder

Just before heading into work, sitting on the dock of the bay, watching an eider and a duckling. Both the male and female eiders look alike at the moment because they are in their summer 'eclipse'. The females look distinctly unimpressive at the best of times, being just brown and big-beaked, while the males get away with being distinctive rather than ugly. They'll become black-and-white again in the autumn. The 'teenagers' - the first and second years - look even worse, as birds that take a long time to become proper grown-ups often do. But I've just remembered that there isn't actually an eider in the photo, so you're probably wandering why the heck I'm wittering on about boring ducks.