Exotic Ducks, Wood & Mandarin
February 2006 - 18 photos each
February 2006 - 18 photos each
Some ducks are quite exotic in appearance. The wild American Wood Duck and the Chinese Mandarin Duck are two very colorful birds that belong to the same duck family. They actually are so colorful that they look like painted decoys, and are smaller than typical ducks that we see around here. The Mandarin duck has vertical rudder like feathers on his wings, called wing sails. They both have fancy crests that can be raised up.
There are two seperate groups of photos shown below
Scroll down to see them
Scroll down to see them
Chinese Mandarin Duck on Jordan River SLC
I have wanted to get photos of the Chinese Mandarin duck for quite some time now. It is rare to see this duck in North America. They are mostly found in China and Japan. During the summer they are also found in parts of Europe and Russia. I have been looking all over for this rare bird and ran across a site on the internet where the photographer David Wheeler mentioned that he found one down on the Jordan River in Salt Lake City.
David Wheeler's Page
Lucky me, the little guy was still there and I got my photos.
to look at these photos
click 'Mandarin Ducks' or 'Wood Ducks' buttons
18 photos 18 photos
click 'Mandarin Ducks' or 'Wood Ducks' buttons
18 photos 18 photos
American Wood ducks on Ogden's Beus Pond
Since I was able to get such good photos of the Mandarin duck, I wanted better photos of the wild American Wood duck to go with him. I knew that the Wood Ducks wintered on Bues Pond in Ogden and went up with the idea of getting some close-up photos. I couldn't get close enough to them, so put on my fishing boots and waded out into the middle of the pond. Hey! don't laugh, it worked, but I nearly froze. What we do for good photos!
Related Photos
There are other bird & waterfoul related photo pages,
click the 'Main Menu' button or 'Site Map' to see them.
There are other bird & waterfoul related photo pages,
click the 'Main Menu' button or 'Site Map' to see them.
These photos were taken with a Canon EOS 20D, 8.2 Megapixel SLR Camera using a Canon 100-400mm telephoto zoom lens. The original photos were taken at aprox 3050 x 2000. These photos are set to 750 x 500 for faster loading. You are welcome to look at or download any of the photos. If you use them on any other webpage, please give credit and refer back to me.