With all this talk of people seeing Mandarin Ducks here and there, I thought I would let you know that I saw a single male and female in the back of my friends house in Logan this past Sunday evening.
We got back from hiking and were sitting out in the backyard having a beer when 2 ducks flew over our heads. They landed on the roof of his neighbors house and I grabbed my binocs and saw that they were positively Mandarins.
99.9% sure that they had escaped from Willow Park, where they do have Mandarins on display.
My friend (who is not a birder), told me that he has seen that pair of Mandarins in his backyard for the past 2 years. He has a canal that runs behind his backyard and he says he has seen baby ducks in there. I assume he saw young Mallards.
What a surprise it would be to find out that the Mandarin pair have been busy raising a little family the last couple of years.
I will check it out over the next few weeks and keep you posted.
I was just looking at the ABA Recording Rules and was reading under Rule 3:
Rule 3: The bird must have been alive, wild, and unrestrained when encountered:
And under part B it states the following:
(iii) Birds descendant from escapes or released birds are considered "wild" when they are part of a population which meets the ABA definition of an established introduced population.
My question is what is the ABA definition of an established introduced population?? I will search for that, but maybe one of you birding gurus out there would know it off hand.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Stephen Peterson
Logan, UT