Thanks to all who helped me with characteristics to tell female Mandarin Ducks from female Wood
Ducks. The duck at the Vista Village adult community on Long Lake in Lacey, Washington is a female
Mandarin Duck. I found her this afternoon and took quite a few pictures with a 400mm lens. Lighting
wasn't the greatest but... we'll see. If I had a little more experience with Mandarin Ducks, I would
not have had a moments indecision on this one but I mistook her for a Wood Duck at first. I just knew
something wasn't right.

This duck is associating with about 30 mallards that spend most of their time in a pond stocked
with goldfish. I'm told that they waddle up the street on occasion to be fed at one particular
house. So, are they truly wild? I think they are. They have simply taken on a lot of semi-domestic
tendencies. There is a good-sized flock of American Wigeon there too. If I go back next summer and
find the Mandarin and the Mallards still hanging around, I'll wonder if they deserve to be credited
with any degree of "wildness". Anyway, I found it more satisfying to find a Mandarin Duck here than
if I had gone to Charles Pillings' pond to see the pairs he purchased through mail order.

Wish there was a male Mandarin around.


I also found the Redhead on Capitol Lake, the one Ryan Shaw reported earlier. I counted nearly 2,000
ducks (not counting the coots, mergansers, and geese) on Capitol Lake, a record high in my tenure.

Kelly McAllister
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
Olympia, Washington