Hi Tweets,

Scott Hall writes:

>In 1984 or 85 I was in Vancouver for an outing with the Kitsap Audubon
>Society. While at Stanley Park there was a Mandarin Duck present with the
>Wood Ducks. Does anyone remember this bird, and was there ever a
>resolution on whether it was wild or not? I know that it was very shy and
>tended to hide, but that alone would not be a conclusive fact.

It can't be said often enough: wary behavior in an extralimital exotic is
not proof or even suggestive of natural origin. In this instance, its
shyness was more a case of not wanting to mix it up with the other more
aggessive ducks in feeding melees. If there were few other ducks around, it
would feed from the hand just as readily as the others.

In this instance, in the 1980's there were a number of pairs of Mandarin Aix
galericulata released into Lost Lagoon--where there was already a viable
feral population of Wood Ducks A. sponsa until the human-fed raccoons nearly
wiped them out--by a private individual who wanted to establish a feral
population there. Each summer they'd leave, presumably to breeding sites
somewhere in the eastern Fraser Valley (where there may be an escaped pair
or two breeding in appropriate habitat--there's always the possibility of a
tiny feral population, likely with some cross-breeding with the Valley's
Wood Ducks). Eventually, the Lost Lagoon population proved non-viable, there
was at least one and possibly two Wood Duck X Mandarin hybrids. The last
sighting of pure Mandarin there was in the late 1980's, while the last
hybrid took its final bow sometime in the early 1990's.

Mandarin has never been anything but an introduced or escaped aviary bird
anywhere in North America.

Michael Price A brave world, Sir,
Vancouver BC Canada full of religion, knavery and change;
mprice at mindlink.net we shall shortly see better days.
Aphra Behn (1640-1689)