Darin' Man

It's like the buses... you wait ages and several come along in a row. Another new bird species recorded for the area. A fabulous drake MANDARIN was present at Harpham on Saturday, but there was no sign when I looked again on Sunday afternoon so perhaps it had been disturbed by dog walkers.

Mandarin's are slowly increasing in Yorkshire, roughly as follows: before 1990s scarce, 1990s-2000s regular in small numbers with occasional breeding, 2010s several established local breeding populations in the 10s and odd birds expected almost anywhere. Having said that a cursory glance at recent Yorkshire Bird Reports suggests they are still very much a scarcity in East Yorkshire with typically 2-3 per year mostly at either Hornsea Mere or Tophill Low.

For an introduced species I'm unnaturally chuffed with this sighting. Hard to say no to one so handsome, I guess.

Some info:

Wikipedia: Mandarin_duck
Yorkshire Wildlife Trust: Mandarin-duck
Wharfedale Naturalists Society: Mandarins in Wharfedale
BTO BirdTrack: Mandarin - Aix galericulata
YouTube: Mandarins in Regent's Park, London

Here's three record shots.

This one shows the habitat.

A slightly better side-on shot.

Write up of the weekend coming soon...