Pair caught on camera on a visit to the local riverside
Two Mandarin ducks in Putney. Picture: Gordon Edington
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Two Mandarin ducks were photographed recently on Putney Embankment.
Although they have been spotted in the past in SW15, the riverside is not usually their preferred environment.
They generally are more often seen in still water with shade and there is a large colony of them in Hyde Park. The pair seen in Putney may have come from the London Wetlands Centre in Barnes.
The Mandarin duck is a non-native species originally from east Asia that first appeared in the wild in the UK around a hundred years ago. It is believed they initially escaped from private collections before establishing themselves mainly in the south east of England although they can now be seen across Britain.
The rise in the local population has offset a decline in their native environment where they have become quite rare due to habitat loss.
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May 7, 2021
