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| Mandarin ducks |
Yesterday was a bright, sunny day despite the Met Office promising another day of December gloom. I was rather hoping they'd get it wrong today, too. Weather alerts and warnings were issued, cancelled, updated and revised with gay abandon yesterday evening. It was a gloomy dawn but over the next hour or so the sun shone invitingly on the horizon below glowering clouds. But it was a strong wind blowing more and darker clouds in. I decided I wasn't going to spend the last day of the birdwatching year stressing about trains and inclement weather.
So I bobbed over to Etherow Country Park to take photos of mandarin ducks in the gloom.
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| Drake mandarin |
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| Drake mandarin |
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| Female mandarin |
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| One of the things I like about mandarin ducks pictorially is the abstract shapes they generate by moving about. Even more so when there's a crowd of them. |
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| Mandarin ducks |
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| Drake mandarins |
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| These two have almost certainly paired up now |
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| Drake mandarin |
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| Mandarins and mallards |
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| Drake mandarin |
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| Mandarins |
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| Mandarins |
I knew there was a healthy population here but the fifty-odd I saw today — mostly drakes — was a surprise.
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| A pair of mandarins see out 2024 |
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