Teal

It was the sort of day when you could make believe all was right with the world.  After so much wind and rain, it was bright and calm.  Leighton Moss was thronged with visitors, cetti's warblers sang explosively, water rails squealed deep in the reedbeds, there were male and female goldeneyes diving for fish, and male teals were bleeping and displaying to the females.  In the fields there are new-born lambs.  Spring feels like it is nearly here.  Within the next week or so, the first sand martins will be flying over the pools and wheatears will be stopping off to feed on the coast as they move back to their upland and northern breeding grounds.

The photo shows a teal having a work out before displaying to his mate.  It shows the spread primaries, but also the coloured speculum feathers.  The light from this angle shows the speculum as blue, but when at rest on the water they are green.  Similarly with the eye stripe, blue from this angle, green when the light catches it from a different side.  Teal are our smallest ducks, a friend calls them 'pocket ducks', they are so small and neat, you could almost put them in your pocket.