Mergus merganser

Today's the day ........................... to look up

I'm pleased to say that the goosanders are back in town - and if you go down to where Stramongate Bridge crosses over the River Kent you can be sure of seeing a fair number of them.

They are quite unmistakeable - the female with her chestnut head and punk hairstyle and the male - long-bodied and rakish in the dinner jacket. Both of them with that long narrow red beak which looks pretty lethal if it were to be used in anger.

I looked them up in the Field Guide to the Birds of Britain and Europe. It's quite interesting to see that we call them goosanders, the french call them harle bièvre, the swedish storskrake, the germans gänsesäger and the dutch grote saagbek - all of which sound completely different from each other.

Bit of an enigma those Mergus mergansers ..........................