Common Shelduck
Tadorna tadorna
Common Shelduck · Dungeness · 20 December 2025
A Common Shelduck on the water at Dungeness in December, a bird of estuaries and coastal marsh across Europe and Asia, and one that nests underground, in rabbit burrows in the dunes.
Bottle-green head, blood-red bill, and a body pattern bold enough to look more like a goose than a duck at a distance - which is roughly where it sits taxonomically too, a genuine in-between species. The ducklings from a whole estuary are gathered into creches of a hundred or more, minded by a few adults while the rest go off to moult.
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