Ring-necked Duck: After what seemed like a along, but productive work meeting based in a posh high rise office building in Manchester's Spinningfields, I was glad to get out and spend my daily exercise in no so far Alexandra Park.
The same female RND that spent a day on the 12th of February at Elton Reservoir has now taken up residence here.
The females have a pale brown head and body, whitish chin, throat, and around the base of the beak, white stripe behind the eye, white eye-ring, dark brown back, grey beak with subtle white band, and brown eyes.
But it's the drakes which in ducks are typically much fancier with their black head and neck with a purple sheen, an inconspicuous cinnamon neck ring, grey-blue beak with a broad white band and black tip. And a distinctive white line around the base of the beak, yellow eyes, the upperparts.
When I arrived the bird was loafing about, bobbing up and down on the pond with a dozen or so tufted ducks. It seemed very content until a family came to feed the duck some bread.
It was at this point the bird made a beeline for the free food, fighting off the other ducks for some crumbs.
The bird was more timid than the other ducks on the pond and as soon as it managed to grab some food it moved right back out into the middle and always seemed to hang back.
A duck on a small ornamental park near a city centre who is coming to bread certainly raises questions regarding the birds status. But nothing is definitive and all these things are most certainly not conclusive.
Its free flying and unringed, that's all we know.
Still, whatever its outcome it was a great opportunity to not only 'exercise my camera lifting arm, during lockdown but a great opportunity to see a female RND at such close quarters.
