A few shots from Feb 1st in Dublin, Ireland at St. Stephen's Green in the City Centre. Very nice park with some ponds and fountains. Good variety of birds in this park. Usually some Mallards, gulls, magpies, swans, and this very colorful bird that I've never seen before!
I was stunned by how colorful and beautiful this little duck was. I chatted with a couple of local photographers who told me there are 5-6 of them at the park. I plan on returning to the park again at the end of the month to see if he is still there. I certainly hope so!
Word is that some mandarin ducks have been brought into the UK by private collectors. Some of them have escaped and now there's a feral community of them spreading throughout the UK and Ireland. According to a book I picked up in a Dublin book store about Irish birds, there's a small group of Mandarins up in County Down.
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