Dressed to Impress

We both went to Figgate Park today, Crafty Green Boyfriend was keen to see and photograph the male mandarin that has been hanging out on the Figgate Pond for the last few days (you can see moy photos from yesterday here). We were lucky that the mandarin was posing on the pond as soon as we got there though it moved away for a while before Crafty Green Boyfriend could get any photos. The bird spent equal amounts of time posing for the cameras (and there were a lot of photographers at the pond today!)

trying to impress the female mallards

including performing his little dance - dip head into water, toss head back, hide beak in feathers, shimmy, repeat

then of course he had to find a quiet secluded spot to recover

What a delightful sight and a real rarity in Edinburgh (the mandarin was first brought to the UK as an ornamental species from China but has escaped and now breeds in certain parts of the UK).

Crafty Green Boyfriend has a much stronger lens on his camera and was able to capture good photos of the gadwall, a duck at the opposite end of the spectrum to the mandarin, with it's subtly beautiful grey plumage and smart black beak

The tufted ducks were looking fine today as well, the males have such marvellous tufts on their heads at this time of year

Also several goosanders on the pond, including this female

Thanks to Crafty Green Boyfriend for taking all these photos!