Tufted Duck - two males, Amsterdamse Waterleiding Duinen, Netherlands

Last March for our anniversary we paid a visit to the Amsterdamse Waterleiding Duinen, a sort of natural park at the coast that has both recreational paths as well as some no-go natural areas. Within the Netherlands it is best known for its foxes. When seeing a top fox photo from the Netherlands, there's a good chance it's made here. Many photographers fail to mention the "making of", the fact that these foxes are close to being domesticated. They are very used to people and occasionally have been lured/fed, which means they can be somewhat reliably seen and get within touch distance. Such as the first time I visited, and almost tripped over one:

The park is known locally for a second reason: the deer problem. Due to a lack of predators (a nation-wide problem), there's no check on population growth which has led to overpopulation. Which in turn leads to public outcries on how cruel it is to shoot them. This raging debate applies to all our little snippets of semi-nature, there's no real space for a true wild.

Anyway, back on topic. The Tufted Duck is named after its tuft, which both sexes have yet is larger and more explicit in the male. These ducks are highly specialized in water-feeding, they can dive down for long periods of time and their feet are positioned so far back as to optimize for diving and swimming upstream. As a result, they kind of suck at walking on land.