Thursday, November 21, 2013

Mandarin Duck - Leverett Pond


Likely an escaped duck, this Mandarin was spotted on 11/20 by Stephen Baird. I relocated it in a flock of 40 wood ducks(High Count for location) on the east bank of the island on the west side of Leverett Pond. It can be viewed from the East bank of the pond. A scope is helpful if he stays where he was at 9:00am this morning.

I am generally confused about how to log this bird. I find it nice, even with birds like this that a likely escaped, to see the eBird report for the sighting. I've never seen one so it was nice to have the report and go down to Brookline to see it. I found this website which give a little info: https://aba.org/birding/v43n5p46.pdf

Also, for those who are interested, eBird says, "Escaped or introduced species should be reported, but will count on your lists. In the future we plan to give the option to selectively remove obvious escapees from selected lists." http://help.ebird.org/customer/portal/articles/973921-what-data-are-appropriate-

Any way you report it, this is one beautiful bird!