It's good weather  for ducks this week as the expression goes and it seems to be holding true for me. Yesterday we had the Scaup  locally, and this morning, just down the canal another mile or so, there had been reports of a Wood Duck drake, a North American species.  These are gorgeous birds with exotic plumage. At this time of year who knows where birds arrive from and at first there was just the vague possibility that this bird had flown in from  North America, hardly likely but possible.  When I found the duck on the canal it was skulking in the undergrowth by the far edge of the canal and looked as wild as a duck could be.

There was an angler nearby and he told me that he had been feeding it! I threw some leaves in to the water and almost immediately it swam out of it's cover and came to investigate the free offerings……….. or so it thought! As it was now just a few feet from me I was able to take some really nice close ups of it and also see that it was sporting a blue ring on it's left leg. The poor unfortunate bird has escaped from some where and is very hungry to say the least.