mandarin duck

Nice of him to pose for me!

Photographed in a creek in the suburb of Montreal together with a white domestic duck and a wild female Mallard. That Duck was seen and photographed in January 2021 at another location at sub zero temperatures.

I feel like these belong here in the UK. I am always delighted to see them. But I never saw more than 2 at once, and here, there were 6 waiting for me, as if to distract me from the woodpeckers failing to put up an appearance

Mandarin Duck

Another of this beautiful Mandarin Duck resident on a local disused boating lake too good to only show one pic.

I probably should have saved this one for Saturday fun, but I figure we could all use an extra laugh this year. Hope this gave you one.

He was also getting much bolder after spending much of the summer at the popular duck-feeding area. Staying well away from humans earlier, he was now swimming quite close to where I stood at the edge of the pond. That gave me a different view of his plumage.

I got dozens of good shots of this guy that day, but I'll try not to bore you by posting them all. Just a final three today, and making sure they're all quite different poses. Here he's chasing off a Mallard who was crowding him near the seeds I'd been tossing out onto the water. When this guy...

mandarin

Canard mandarin - Aix galericulata - Mandarin Duck

The water tells the story here. Once the Mallard was futher away, the Mandarin stopped his chase. The water behind him was churned up by the chase, which he conducts partly submerged like a surface torpedo. The droplets and rings ahead of him are what's left of the trail of the retreating Mallard.

Mandarin (F) at Yarrow Valley Park Lancashire 22/07/2020.

And one last shot - for now - of him on his own. Now to get back to work on my conference papers and sewing. I'll catch up browsing this evening.

With Juvenile.

A surprise amongst the mallards and swans in Waltham Abbey

Lone female mandarin duck.

Have a great weekend y'all.

two days later, when the weather was slightly better. Still grey, but not snowing. I seem to be boring this drake with my attention. He's falling asleep on the modeling job ;)

Taken at the Hirosaki Castle

and very much at ease there.