Back in September 2017, I wrote a blog about the experience of seeing a female Garganey on Roath Park Lake (Autumn migration: Garganey).

Roll forward seven years to last Tuesday, 27 August, and my trip to north Cardiff was almost an exact repeat of that day in 2017: searching but not initially finding the bird; going for a walk and trying again (though this time I had some help from a local birder who’d seen the Garganey earlier that morning); noting how she was feeding so frequently amongst the lake weed that most of my photos were of a headless duck.

As with so many duck species, the female Garganey (Anas querquedula) does not have the showy plumage of the male of the species but this was a gorgeous, very dainty little duck. And, once I did eventually find her, she was a joy to watch.