Saturday 17 March 2012

Mandarins near you!



After reading the Daily Post today about the Mandarin in Llangollen it tickled my fancy somewhat! So on my way back from seeing my parents in St Helens I called in at Raby Mere near Bebbington on the Wirral (Google it). There's been a feral population on this Fishing lake for yonks now with them breeding there most years. Today a male flew in, plopped onto the lake and tried to chum another female until a rival male chased it off, thankfully into the path of my camera (above photo). In North Wales I saw 7 Males at the Osprey project once, a male at Llanrwst a few years back and a flighty female one summer at Cors Erddreiniog. Other than a population on the Dee near Chester are there any other populations nearby? Are they established in Clocaenog at that picnic spot?

3 comments:

  1. There is a pair at Gresford Pond (not Gresford Flash) on High Street. Been within a couple metres of these as they come to road's edge with the mallards.

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  2. There has been a small breeding population of Mandarin Ducks on the Glaslyn in the Porthmadog area for some years now, as you say Steve. I saw them fairly regularly at the Osprey Protection site. There was another population closer to Porthmadog at one time but I haven't seen them at that site for a few years. They are believed to derive from two pairs that escaped from captivity in around 1997. These are the only Mandarins I have seen which behave 'naturally'. They are very wary of humans and cannot be approached closely. You would never get a photo like the one above, for example.

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  3. The Gresford lake birds have been around for a year or so now.
    There is still a good population still of 'wild' birds along the lower Dee from Chester through the Wrexham area.

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