As I left for work this morning there was just a faint glimmer of light on the horizon - always a signof hope that summertime is on the way. Two birds rose up from the stream opposite my driveway and flew high into the starry sky making a strange rasp-like call. It was a pair of these beautiful birds - mandarin ducks - which breed locally along the Wendover arm of the Grand Union canal. The male is simply beautiful and, certainly in appearance terms, totally in keeping with its south-east Asian origin.......