Some colour!

Grey grey grey old day in Canterbury today, which seemed like a slap in the face after the gorgeous Spring days we've had lately.

This male Mandarin duck has recently arrived on the Stour with his girl-friend, who is a sort of dowdy white. I thought the female was an entirely different species and that their relationship was doomed to be barren, but Wikipaedia tells me I'm wrong. Apparently female Mandarin ducks are usually browny-grey, but white variants are quite common. Although these ducks originate from the Far East there are said to be 3,000-7,000 in the UK (varying by season) - many are escapees from private collections - whereas there are now estimated to be only about 1,000 wild pairs in the whole of China. What a dramatic population shift! All attributed to habitat loss and the hand of man.