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:
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.
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!!
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: