Water-birds at Park End Moss

Park End Moss, the Lyth Valley

Saturated ground caused a landslip up on Kirkstone Pass, with resultant road closure.  There are flood alerts in Cumbria.  Yesterday was wet- so I expected to see floodwaters in the Lyth Valley.  And a muddy walk.  
There's bright sun, a chill in the shadows but warm enough to see small insects on the wing.  
Pools at Park End Moss show reflections in bright blue water and the reed-beds have a warm glow.
​We spy birds on the water as we walk down through the pasture toward the hide. What will they be?
I hear goldcrest calling and my friend's Merlin app confirms them. Nuthatch too. 

A pair of moorhen swim close to the hide.  Gadwall swim further off.   I hope to show courtship pairs, to compare the plumage of male and female.   The November sun is low in the sky, the light is good.  
Further off, on shoals of water-logged land, there are water-birds roosting.   A moorhen amongst teal.  
Many  birds are roosting, heads tucked into  plumage. Sunlight sometimes catches a wakeful eye and that enlivens the look.  
What of  birds we heard but cannot see.   A water-rail gives a piglet-like squeal, somewhere in the reed-beds.  A Cetti's warbler calls loudly.  Gadwall call, according to Merlin,  it's not a call I know.
I'm on the alert for fieldfare as we return to Helsington Church via the Sizergh estate, but hear none.

A cold night and, at midnight, myriad stars.  A few frost pockets on Scout Scar this morning 17th November.
Trying out my Merlin app is a challenge because there are so few bird calls.  It flags-up goldfinch, long-tailed tit, robin.  Merlin misses raven and mistle thrush because they call so briefly and I'd switched off. 
Giving my focus to bird calls, it's worrying to realise how very few birds I see or hear.  Loss of numbers, I suppose. Silent woods below the escarpment. It's been like that for some while.
Comments are welcome - I like to know what readers look for, what they find of interest.
So, gadwall is a dabbling duck- a shallow-feeder often seen head down and bottom-up. Today, I watched a webbed foot  stirring the aquatic vegetation on which gadwall feed.    Some  images show stems and leaves afloat on this freshwater pool.   The gadwall diet includes aquatic invertebrates which females particularly take during the breeding season.   Gadwall is described as a 'greyish' duck but plumage patterns are exquisite- if sometimes difficult to see.

gg-laying. 

Water birds, like gadwall, spend much time roosting- heads tucked into their plumage. Or shallow-feeding, bottoms up.  So if you hope to identify a duck it's helpful to know what it looks like upside down and feeding.