Surprising discovery 20.02.09

A long walk in increasingly fine temperatures today. Journeyed up Chapel Lane through to Caley Wood gravel pits. Here, I was in for a huge surprise. As I entered the wood the regular sound of mallards could be heard. With my attention fixed on the largest pit, I failed to check a smaller one on my left. Suddenly 6 duck rose, calling their unusual alarm call: mandarin ducks! My 84th species for the area. They flew overhead, circling the lake before alighting briefly, but my presence once again forced them into the air. This time they returned to the other side of the pit, where the trees grow from the edge. Here, they did what they like to do best and hid in the vegetation. After an hour wait, no sign, so I left them without managing a successful photo. I returned 4 hours later and managed to get a poor snap of a male, behind the willows.
Also, whilst in the wood, I flushed a woodcock, whilst on the lake were 2 canada geese, 10+ mallards and several moorhens. A great spotted woodpecker called as a common buzzard mewed overhead; the resident bird.
Before this excitement I had encountered 195+ fieldfares with 25+ redwings. Presumably a pre migratory group.
As I had a coffee at the golf club a grey heron breezed its way northwards and yellowhammers called from the hedgerow. On my return for the mandarins, I registered a kestrel and a pied wagtail, taking the day’s total to an impressive 38. Other highlights included a pair of bullfinches, a coal tit and a solitary mistle thrush.

Photographs attached show a singing dunnock, the first signs of cuckoo pint pushing through in Chapel Lane, a green woodpecker, a poor record shot of one of the manadarins, this one a male and a brown rat keeping a close eye on me