Oriental vagrants or just local drifters

Surprise for me on Saturday afternoon was to get two new site ticks at Cainhoe, a pair of Shelduck potentially could be new in and poking around for a nest hole in the future ?, and more surprising a flock of nine Mandarin, easily the most I have ever seen together in Beds away from the two traditional locations of Stockgrove and Woburn. Count as very pleasing self-finds when away from the normal sites where they get "found"

Further nailing the wildfowl cup...

My first Mandarin of the year.  Catch me if you can landlubbers!  And still got Pintail to find (as well as Velvet Scoter of course)

The Waste Land

TS Eliot was obviously not a birder, for it was he who wrote that 'April is the cruellest month...' No it isn't, you melodramatic old fool - March is...I haven't found a thing since the first few days of the month.

Over the last few months, I've been keeping an eye on a local farm reservoir (which is the nearest body of water within easy walking distance). For the first two months of the year, it looked fantastic for waders: lots of exposed mud, shallow pools and emergent, fringing vegetation. Imagine my horror when I discovered this weekend that it had been pumped full of water. But hey, selfishness aside, it was still worth checking. After a pair of Oystercatchers yesterday (a site first for me), I returned this evening, in sparkling light and hoping for Ringed Plover, Redshank or perhaps something more fanciful like a Curlew or Avocet.

I gave a visceral laugh out loud when the first birds (only birds) on the entire reservoir were a pair of Mandarin. I admit that they looked fantastic in the light, but they were positively not what I was expecting. Both flew off in the direction of Gamlingay Heath. I know there are a couple of private lakes over there, but have no idea what is 'kept' on them.

Still, Mandarin counts as one, just the same as a Lesser Scaup would do. Seems wrong to me, but I'll take it.

DOM