Mother of 13

Just spent the the day at WWT Slimbridge in fine weather. We visited some hides we have not previously tried and saw some species that we hadn't seen before including a Black-Tailed Godwit and a wild Redhead Duck. (there are captive Redheads, but this one is a visitor).

Amongst all the rare waterfowl the star of the day had to be this very common Mallard with 13 ducklings. There were quite a few Mallards with ducklings as well as Moorhens and Coots with chicks and we did see one pair of Canada Geese with 5 goslings. Seriously cute!

Breeding is a little late this year because of the continued cold weather so we were treated to many displays of mating behaviour and preactically everything was in full mating plumage. No need to worry about eclipse plumage. In some case sun glasses would have been a good idea, the feathers were so bright.
Categories: Birds, Birdwatching