Flashback to those walls of flying ducks

Flashback to the '50s today at Tyto Wetlands with Cotton Pygmy-goose (Nettapus coromandelianus) trio flashing across the main lagoon like a middle class home lounge decor feature.

Do think though nature does the decorating better than the plaster kitsch plants.

But a bird doesn't have to flash over some picturesque stretch of water to enhance the natural beauty of a scene. Who's a pretty Plumed Whistling-Duck (Dendrocygna eytoni) then?

Less pretty as a picture, but pretty true to nature is the alarm of Pied Heron (Egretta picata) as it realises vehicle along Orient Station has come to a stop on road beside its fishing sspot. Adding insult to you-know-what, the driver and his mate then leapt out and began wholesale capture of heron's fish with big circular baitnet.

Same spot, but with lens swivelled 90 degrees and here's a Sharp-tailed Sandpiper (Calidris acuminata) showing typically less concern about people close by. Pretty, but not really possessing that '50s look.

An afterthought: whatever happened to all those pink flamingos embedded in lawns?