Cute Little visitor to my local canal

While walking by the Swan meeting the other day we spotted an unusual bird in amongst the Mute Swans. It seemed to be very nervous and at first the bird was sat on the bank and when we approached it would jump in the canal and get mobbed by a few of the male swans. It seemed to hold it's own against the swans and when we backed off the bird would return to the bank to feed on the grass. After abit of patience the bird was quite happy in our presence as you can see from the photographs below.As I had seen these birds in a zoo once in a Flamingo exhibit so I new what these curious little character was. The bird is a Ruddy Shelduck and you can read more about the species here

Although usually seen in private collections at zoo's and WWT reserves it was very unusual to see one on my local patch. I think I captured the Ruddy Shelduck's visit to the canal exactly how I wanted to and I was very happy with the results. A couple of days later the Ruddy Shelduck left so I was quite glad to get the photographs on the day the bird arrived and as it was a sunny day the photographs came out the best they could.

Thanks for reading my blog

Stay wild, be happy and be safe
 

Mike