Splash Down!

After 3 days of Manchester blips, it was back out onto the Nature Reserve this morning for a wander further off the beaten track now that the tracks between the lakes have dried out a bit. This swan (I think) had obligingly posed for me while it was preening at the water's edge; I'd gone further up the track and found a hide and was just setting up the tripod (thought I'd pretend I was a serious photographer!) when I heard the flap of large wings and saw it coming in to land in front of me. Managed to fire off 3 quick shots, of which this was the nearest.

The twitchers were out in force again on the main track, the main attraction this time being a ferruginous duck, although it was being no more forthcoming than the pied-billed grebe of a couple of weeks ago, which is apparently still lurking shyly in the reed-beds somewhere.

Just noticed that One Year Ago I was blipping a flightless bird!