Mandarins and other things

In early March a drake Mandarin was found on the Perch Pond in the Park by a non-birder, or possibly a birder but not one that we know. Widely twitched as usual, I was in Canary Wharf and unable to get there, and shortly after most people had seen it it did a bunk over Heronry and wasn't seen again. Until this Friday that is when James found what presumably is the same bird on Heronry. It quickly did a bunk again but only as far as Shoulder of Mutton where Bob, quick off the mark as ever, refound it a short while later. This time I wasn't in Canary Wharf, I was in Budapest. Excellent.

Roll forward to this Saturday, and now back home I am chomping at the bit to get into the Park and find both the Mandarin and the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, and dare to dream, a migrant. Fat chance on the latter, it has been utterly hopeless on that front. We've had a handful of Swallows, and I do mean a handful. Under ten. Pathetic. But I did get lucky with the Mandarin on Shoulder of Mutton first thing. It hadn't been there when I arrived, or perhaps was tucked up, but I picked it up in flight for the briefest moment as it departed east back towards Heronry. I couldn't refind it there, and a message about a close-by Bullfinch saw me take a cursory glance at Perch before heading off. Natuarally I dipped it. And the Lesser Spot. Then it was time for the Wheatear Trophy presentation.

As Tony and I headed towards the Flats we decided to check Perch. And there it was! Glorious! It is my seventh record of Mandarin, so not super rare but equally quite a long way from annual. This is quite surprising for a species that lives in some numbers not that far away, so I suppose they must be fairly sedentary. This one was really quite friendly.....where has it come from? Who cares as I had my camera with me, my lovely new tiny light-weight toy camera. I have decided that seeing as I barely notice it upon my shoulder that I will try and take it out with me much more often. Weather permitting as it is no Canon 1 series, or at least I have not yet tested it out in the kind of extreme conditions that I knew would do absolutely nothing to the 1DX. It just seems so petite and delicate, how it possibly be expected to repel a single droplet of water? It probably just needs to man up. Or I do. In reality it is all academic as I don't go birding in the rain anyway.