Two slightly distorted guitars; Mandarin!

 I may have misheard Vivian Stanshall, but I'm sure that is what he said when introducing Mike Oldfield's instruments on Tubular Bells(1). So it came as no surprise that Tubular Bells was playing in my head as I photographed this beautiful drake Mandarin Duck this morning off first field on the south side of Hornsea Mere.

I think I gave Jon a heart attack when I saw him shortly after the duck had flown, as I announced I'd seen a drake Harlequin Duck.  Oops - a momentary lapse of reason on my part there 😂

Mandarin

It had just started to rain when I walked into first field so I was hoping that, after overnight rain as well, we would have one or two interesting summer migrants in the fields, bushes and trees. Alas, my hopes were dashed, as apart from 3 Stonechats feeding on the set-aside thistle heads I didn't see anything. The set-aside field is also drawing in finches and the flock of Linnet reached c.45 this morning.

The mass movement of Pink-footed Goose has started in earnest and I had 43 flying east overhead as I walked through second field. The large herd of Barnacle Goose is still with us and I counted 163 this morning.

Barnacle Geese

A single Little Gull was on the jetty at KP yesterday, which may be one of the last records for this year at the Mere. We'll see.

Little Gull on KP

While humming Tubular Bells to myself I was mulling over what else Viv Stanshall had done and I was thinking about this days with the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. His introduction to the instruments on Tubular Bells reminded me of his The Intro & The Outro* on 1967's Gorilla album. This was probably the reason Mike Oldfield asked Viv to MC the same thing for Tubular Bells.

*With a nebulous link to birds, The Intro & The Outro includes the line "Drop out with Peter Scott on duck call".

 (1) Of course, on Tubular Bells, a mandolin is introduced and not a Mandarin (I think)