Two Mandarin Ducks dropped into VP today and initially spent the time skulking on the shingle island, viewed from the Memorial hide! I'd been here before - wondering if they were adults in eclipse but favoured simply two juveniles!
The bill colour is a good indicator of sex, so clearly we had a male (red bill) and female (grey black bill)
Without warning, they flew to the north end of the pool and I legged it to the North hide where they were showing really well! Engaged in a bit of courtship? Male clearly larger then the female
I wanted to age them as they looked like juveniles and Tom Lowe kindly supplied some pointers for distinguishing from eclipse adults? (ex Sebastien Reeber's - Wildfowl)
Some pointers: overall dullish plumage, interrupted white eye-ring, no white line across bill base and poorly demarcated white throat... John Martin thought an adult male would be showing signs of their full splendour...
The action hotted up with a wash and wingflap...
Followed by some full on washing!
Only a few minutes had elapsed before the paddled off...
