Trump’s touted border patrolling has failed again. An exotic Chinese duck has appeared in New York’s Central Park, without any known visa or passport. The duck’s true origin is yet unknown. Click here to read about excited birders and photographers.
The Mandarin’s American cousin is our Wood Duck, also gloriously showy in male breeding plumage though more understated than the male Mandarin, easily the showiest of all wild ducks.
MANDARIN GALLERY
Here are pictures I took a few years ago…of Mandarins, now successful in many of London’s city parks, breeding in the urban wilds, dabbling in canals and ponds that look frighteningly unclean. Perfect fit for the environment we people have created.
Most of these images came from Beckenham in south London where the Mandarins numbered over sixty in the city park.
Best of all is this painting of a pair of Mandarins that showed up briefly in Ashland some years ago. By my friend and artist, Kirk Gooding:
Towheeblog 
[…] I recently blogged about the Mandarin that showed up in New York City, tizzying the local bird liste… Better than that is this bit of beauty from my friend, Kirk Gooding, who painted a pair of Mandarins when they suddenly appeared without explanation in Ashland a decade ago:. My favorite piece of Kirk’s fine work is a small painting of a Wilson’s Snipe he gave me, the bird standing on one leg as is often the case. Kirk and I frequently see snipe in the spring in the Howard Prairie area east of Ashland, or Summer Lake or Malheur. We are among birding’s many admiring snipers. […]
By: THE ART OF THE MANDARIN | Towheeblog on November 2, 2018
at 8:04 am