Yes, it's a Ruddy Shelduck. This one's almost certainly an escapee from a collection, though some arrive from the Continent where there's a feral population now. True vagrants from their native range might appear very occasionally but it's nigh-on impossible to tell where they come from usually.
Yours looks a bit strange. Females have more white on the head than males, but not normally as much as yours - so I guess yours is a bit leucistic. Also yours appears to have some faint pink markings on the bill, which isn't normal, though I suppose it could arise from the same pigment issue that causes the white head perhaps. It also looks weird structurally, but that's perhaps just the pose it was in when you took the photo.
Hybrids between Ruddy Shelducks and other species of Shelduck or Sheldgoose (e.g. Egyptian Goose), or occasionally other species of duck, occur occasionally so with some odd looks I wondered if yours might not be pure. But none of the anomalies I see on your bird are what I'd expect to see on a hybrid, so I think not.
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27-01-11, 08:43 PM
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