A Valentine's Day jaunt to the RSPB's reserve at Rye Meads in Hertfordshire. It was a dull, grey day but nice weather for ducks, as they say. Shown above is a male Teal – quite an exotic looking specimen, halfway between Gadwall and Mandarin if you ask me! They're actually noticeably small, compact ducks compared to Mallards (choosing that as my default duck reference point).

Below is the female, showing the green wing patch (also on the male, just not visible above) that does a fair job of distinguishing it from female Gadwalls and Mallards, its small size and tendency to hang around with male Teal being others. Actually I'm particularly pleased with this photograph – click for larger version.

The exotic look of the male Teal turns out not to be such bad camouflage as you might imagine. Certainly paddling around the fringes of reed beds it was reasonably well matched in terms of overall palette, as demonstrated below.