As well as the Wheatear I wrote about yesterday, Monday’s walk around Cardiff Bay also turned up another treat, this time at the wetlands reserve.

Gadwall can be quite shy birds, and I’ve certainly never seen one as close as this beautiful female, who was mixing quite happily with the Mallards by the boardwalk. Apparently, she had even been coming to feed on the bread some people had thrown in the water.

Several other people were on the boardwalk, waiting in anticipation of seeing one of the Water rails that have been quite showy in recent days, but ignoring this stunning duck right under their noses.

Not me – I took a ton of photos of her, many of which turned out a bit blurry because she was almost too close for my long lens. And that’s not something that happens very often in the world of bird photography!