Goosander

I like goosanders - they are a welcome and quite exotic looking addition to the wildfowl along the river as it winds around the town. There's quite a lot of them about at the moment - this female was in a group of twenty or so. The males are equally striking but as I looked at the photos I realised the females looked oddly like a red squirrel (or perhaps a fox if you prefer) in disguise with a fake beak on. Once I saw that I couldn't unsee it, and so the choice of blip was made. I was able to get closer than usual because the river is high and has flooded some of the low lying paths along the river, so the ducks get to enjoy their expanded range without concern about being approached.