Tufted ducklings are still quite a rare sight in the Vale of Glamorgan, though breeding records have increased in recent years – three broods have been recorded in Cardiff Bay this year, for example. Today’s little bundle of now-partial fluffiness, however, was raised, along with its five siblings, at The Knap in Barry, where I caught up with it on Monday when I went to see the Grey phalarope. The Knap is a very shallow, man-made lake, in a heavily managed park, so it’s not easy to see where the nest was – perhaps beneath some thick shrubs and bushes with a stone wall behind. Still, mother Tufted duck has done very well indeed to raise six ducklings in such a setting.