Wren in the Reeds

I visited Mount Pond twice today: I went this morning and was pleased to see that there was a male pochard on the pond! But, grrr, he was just floating with his head tucked under his wing, and I got rather chilly before it untucked itself. I would have stuck it out longer, but I need to be careful with the cold for a bit to give my hands, toes, and face some time to recover from the brutal cold of the past week!

"I'll come back this afternoon", I thought, "it'll be on the go by then...".

Ha... I returned to Mount Pond in the afternoon to find the pochard floating with its head tucked under its wing. Lazy creature! It was even on the same part of the pond; had it moved at all?! It is definitely not dead (...): it had its one exposed eye open, and would paddle a tiny bit when another bird approached (without changing its posture...).

Today was a day of several firsts (for me, at Mount Pond): I saw a pied wagtail which I've not seen there before (although there is a very chummy one that hops about the pavements of Balham), and this was also the first time that I saw a wren there! The cutest "first" was hearing a male tufted duck make a startled little trilling sound when two fighting Canada geese got rather too close to him...
See how long the wren's toes are in large ("L"): they reach all the way to the bottom of the reed on which it is perched!

p.s. That is one of the little bullied coots in the background: I took this over on the side of the pond that the low status coots tend to seek refuge...