Mandarin Day

Parking roadside, we walked the Weavers Way down to Felbrigg Lake. The path is usually very muddy and wet in the middle section. We approached with trepidation and found it to be the best ever, just the occasional boggy bit which could be easily circumvented. They'd improved the area around the lake too. No Mandarins in sight - as usual for us - I set up scope at the far gate so that I could inspect the tree roots on the far side.After about 15 minutes scanning, a small brown blob at the base of a root, lifted its head. A drake Mandarin. We'd been joined by two other birders, getting everyone else onto the bird was not easy ! Especially as it didn't even twitch when a float of noisy Greylag hemmed it in. Andy departed to walk round behind the trees - there's a footpath - as we hoped, 2 drakes and a female flew out, one drake posing in the centre of the water before the other two joined it and they all flew around the small headland. Andy and friend left to try for a photo, we had good scope views from the wood edge. Andy should be sending me a pic, I'll post it when it arrives.




At least two Nuthatches were calling in the woods, we both heard Treecreeper, Pam saw one - I'd walked on - but couldn't re-locate it.
Couldn't find any Firecrests at Lion's Mouth, probably searching in the wrong area as it came through on the pager when we got home. That's very annoying ! A male Tawny Owl called loudly which was a bonus. Neither of the two local pairs are doing so this year.