A colourful splash! on the Patch.

Male Mandarin

Had a couple of interesting days on the patch ,  when I got up to the flood  Saturday morning, the first thing that greeted me was 2 Mute swans. now this was the first time I have seen Mutes on the flood, although John informed me that we have had a juvenile on there previously. Snipe continue to put in an appearance with usually 6 or so on view. The lapwings come and go but usually about 200 about. Gulls vary in numbers and also in species, but most gulls are now spending time on the new flood alleviation area, and this morning there was a mixed bag of 0ver 100.
The most unusual arrival though is  the Mandarin ducks 2 reported although I could only find 1 and it took me ages to get a pic as it was very nervous and keeping in cover quite a bit. These had arrived on the settling pond where there hasn't been much activity for a while.
Sunday morning after doing a bit of chasing around with John , we finally managed to pin down one of the many flocks of Waxwings that were roaming round Penrith, although they were too far away for decent pics.

About 50 Waxwings in this flock some off camera.