UKH

From last Saturday. Lovely birds, look drab from a distance.

Three chicks and two adults. Small nature reserve in Maidenhead. Three chicks and two adults. Also two types woodpecker, jays, goldcrest, usual tits and warblers. 

I’ve never seen them that close! Nice photos of them.

Only ones I’ve seen are hundreds of metres away beyond camera reach. They have been very shy always close to reed beds etc or diving for extended period to be out of sight even though they are so far away.

They are skulky, but think they were more used to people at this place. 

I saw two on Blackford Pond in Edinburgh's Morningside this afternoon.  I usually see at least one.  They seem to be fairly habituated to the dog walkers, runners & buggy-pushers that typically frequent the place, although they still tend to keep more to the middle of the pond than e.g. the mallard and mute swans.  No more wary than the tufties, though, really.

Seen them several times on a lake at Kew Gardens on the lake (not the lake near main entrance).

Have very occasionally seen one or two on the Irwell in Salford.

Many years ago when I worked in Loughborough, there was a large decorative pond out front (or maybe it should be called a small lake). There was one spent most of the winter there without getting spooked by people nearby.