Mandarin Duck

Back blip.
This is a female mandarin duck; she has a partner who rather took me by surprise. I'm very fond of mandarin ducks, and am used to the males looking like this; out of breeding season, the male moults and takes on plumage very much like that of the female called eclipse plumage. I'd not seen one in eclipse before; apparently the best way to tell the sexes apart is that the females' beaks are more grey, and the males' ones are more pink.

I think they're terribly cute: they're petite, very curvy, and have amazing iridescence on their wing feathers (both the obviously iridescent ones, and a more subtle sheen even on the brown feathers).

I took this picture by the large pond in Kew Gardens; there was also a Little grebe on the pond which was charming. It had two chicks (Little grebelings?); they were sitting right in the middle of the pond, making them tricky to photograph...