Lovely to see this just now, a stone's throw from where I live!
Someone there said it had been appearing regularly for a couple of months, and he thought it was an escapee.
It was after 4pm and the light was going, but I fiddled with the aperture settings and managed one reasonable shot:
__________
Nige Flickr
2013 photos & vids here
eff37 on Flickr
Every day is a school day, and a hooded merganser is definitely a new one for me, and a lovely looking bird as well. Well captured Karen.
Mike
Flickr: Peak Rambler
Thanks Nigel, Wendy and Mike
I had never heard of a Hooded Merganser before - but a birdwatcher friend texted me to let me know it was there, so off I scooted - the pond is five minutes' walk away, so I was lucky!
I don't know of any wildlife parks in the local area. The only one I know of is Penshurst, which is many miles away. It could be from a private collection - somewhere with a large pond, perhaps. Who knows? Still, he seems to be happy in the large Wilderness Pond here, quite happily swimming round with the mallards. There are about a dozen mandarin ducks on this pond, too, so he's in good company in terms of looking dashing and impeccable!!
____________________________________________________________________
Tony
My Flickr Photostream
yes, he is, isn't he...
We are so lucky with our park here - it's very ancient, and so is the pond - medieval, I believe, and connected with the Priory which it was the original fishpond for.
Here is a slightly blurry photo I took yesterday of one of the mandarins:
Pete
Birding is for everyone no matter how good or bad we are at it,enjoy it while you can