Mandarin Duck Aix galericulata
Scarce and increasing feral resident or visitor and local escapee.
Mandarin Ducks: left, male at Gibraltar Point, October 8th 2017; right, female at Kirkby on Bain, August 22nd 2017 (Russell Hayes).
With the establishment of feral birds particularly in the southeast of England Mandarin was admitted to the British List in 1971. The first published county record was in Lorand and Atkin (1989) who noted that an immature male was seen in late July 1964 at North Killingholme Pits, although they thought the county record to be incomplete as observers may not have submitted records believing the birds to always be of captive origin. Further records since then came from Deeping St James, August 13th, 1973 (immature male) and August 30th, 1974; a pair at Deeping, January 10th, 1975. By that time, it was said to have become a regular visitor to the various gravel pits in the south of the county, thought to originate from feral flocks in Northamptonshire and the annual county reports continued to note scattered records into the 1980s. Both the Atlas and Lorand and Atkin (1989) noted a confirmed breeding record near Tallington “in the early 1980s” but no specific date was given; it was suspected these birds might be local escapes. Since that time Mandarin has spread widely from southern England into the river valleys of the Pennines of Derbyshire and Yorkshire and the Yorkshire Moors. Breeding has become more regular in the south-west of the county at Grimsthorpe and Belton Parks and as far north-east as Kirkby on Bain. It is likely the spread will continue, and dispersing birds can appear on water bodies anywhere in the county. In 2018 they were reported from 14 sites.
(Account as per new Birds of Lincolnshire (2021), included September 2022)