Mandarin Duck shot locally?

[wife&3kids]

I was at the taxidermists today dropping off a canadian when he showed me a duck that resembled a wood duck, but had some major differences. I said that it might be one of those Euro Widgeon people have been talking about. I came back to the office and it is clearly a Mandarin Duck....
Has anyone shot, or heard of anyone shooting a mandarin duck in this State (Oregon)?

[Boedy]

Here are some Pictures:



Maybe it was a private raised duck as I haven’t read anything about them being on this side of the Pacific.

Sure are pretty, but I hear they taste like crap

[ 01-13-2003, 05:59 PM: Message edited by: Boedy ]

[GutshotApe]

Yeah but they're not wild origin. When I was in high school many moons ago my hunting buddy shot a mandarin duck on the lower Coweeman River behind a Ma & Pa Kettle-type farm while floating by in a cartop boat. It weighed about 7 or 8 pounds and was pretty good eating, for a duck.

Edit: Boedy, that doesn't look like what I call a mandarin duck. Mandarin ducks I;ve seen are huge, have a lot of green & reds. That duck looks like an unknown duck I once saw in a flock of wood ducks in the spring on an old log pond in Coos County. I thought it was some type of asian duck. :whazzup:

[ 01-13-2003, 06:04 PM: Message edited by: GutshotApe ]

[WildHawg]

My hunting partner shot a European Widgeon while we were hunting together. We had no idea what it was 'til our taxidermist friend id'd it. Apparently, they get blown over on big storms like we had just prior at Thanksgiving '99.
Have another friend who CLAIMS he killed a Pintail-Mallard cross--I think I hit it, but that's another story, back in about 1985. Has it mounted, and I cuss him every time I see it. We ended up flipping a coin for possession, and he won! [img]graemlins/berry.gif[/img]
Very cool. Strange things do happen.

[Gun Rod Bow]

Wife &3,

Not meaning to brag, but I have a Eurasian Widgeon and a "Sprallard" (Sprig/Mallard Cross) mounted. The Eurasian was the third I've seen around Oregon. The one I had mounted was shot on the family ranch near Crow OR.

If your friend shot a Mandarin (you got it Boedy) it was likely as GSA says, captive raised. Although, nothing like nature to break the rules. I once saw 3 Flamingos flying with Honkers for 2 months.

I was once at the San Diego zoo at the duck pond. Watched Mallards, Pintail and Widgeon fly in and out. Some of the captive Mandarins were following them flying around.

GRB

[Bill Monroe]

Sigh...
GSA, of all people, you oughtta know better.
The large duck you're talking about is a muscovy. they don't weigh quite 8 pounds, which is about the average western canada goose, but they are larger than mallards. they're a very common domestic duck.
Mandarins are, indeed, wild asian ducks that occasionally come down this side of the pacific, as do Baikal teal and eurasian wigeon. There are usually one or two eurasian wigeon hanging out at Westmoreland Park, by the way.

Any luck down there on the pond? We still have seen any up here.
I shot four ducks on private land north of Baskett the other day...one more than my season total to date...

(How was El Centro?)

[Flying Roast Beef]

How in the world would a flamingo get here? That's an African critter? Zoo escapee?

[blast and cast]

Yes I have shot a mandarin duck and a eurasian widgeon. I have pictures of the eurasian next to an american widgeon. I will take it off the wall and scan in the next day. I was too young and stupid to know that I should mount it. The mandarin was shot on the Tualatin and was hanging out with a bunch of wood ducks. The mandarin is considered the "asian" wood duck. I will take a picture of the mount and post it. Based on the research that I did after it was shot, there are a few wild nesting pairs in California and there are some around that were raised in captivity and then got out.

[GutshotApe]

Geez Bill, Mandarin? Muscovy? What's the difference, they both start with M? No, you're right. The big ones are Muscovies (what was I thinking? :whazzup: ). So that must have been a Mandarin duck I saw with the woodies down on the middle fork Coquille.

El Centro/Yuma was warm & sunny 78 to 80 deg. no wind. Just like summer. Too bad there's no decent fishing down there this time of year. Stopped along the way at the Wister Wildlife Area on the SE side of Salton Sea and the lower Colorado at Yuma to see the birds. Lots of wintering ducks & shorebirds in the SaltonSea. Every time I travel thru California, Arizona & Nevada and see the suburban sprawl I'm reminded of Senate Bill 100 and Oregon's LCDC and our landuse planning - and feel thankful & appreciative the 1973 legislature had the foresight to adopt statewide land use planning, even flawed as it may be.

[Bounty Hunter]

Eurasian widgeon aren't impossible to see in these parts any more. I've got a birding friend that sees them in a Gresham city park once or twice a year.

[Killertraylor]

Is the Eurasian Widgeon the same thing I've heard called a European Widgeon? A friend of mine shot one about 5 years ago at my hunt club in Rickreall. If I remember right, it had the same markings as a normal widgeon, but a red head instead of green. You wouldn't confuse it with a mandarin. I saw several of the European widgeon mixed in with normal widgeon at a golf course in Phoenix when I went down for OSU's thrashing of Notre Dame in the 2000 Fiesta Bowl.

[de-bander]

I have a friend who shot a drake mandarin north of Salem 6 years ago. The same year he took a Eurasian Widgeon too. He always seemed to get the rare ducks. My roommate tells me there were 4 drake eurasians at a park in Albany as of yesterday mixed in with a bunch of American Widgeon. I hope some day I'm fortunate enough to get either of these gorgeous ducks!

[Rueben4life]

I began waterfowl hunting in N. Ca and nearly 10 years ago my unlce shot a Mandarin, the next year a buddy of mine shot one. There has been speculation that people raise these birds. I am of opinion these birds feed with birds of another specie in the arctic and just fly along with them on the journey south. Same for the Eurasian Wigeon. I know a guy back in N. Ca that shoots 10-12 a year. He targets them in huge flocks of American wigeon, out of his canak. The taxidermists in that area mount probably a dozen a year between them. Just my .02 worth.

[Salmonator]

You can see an European Widgeon on almost any given day in the Albany area when the big flocks of widgeon are in the parks (grand prairie, periwinkle, timberlinn, ect..). It seems like there is always one in the flock and no more. They have a rufous head with a cream colored stripe on the crown. When I see widgeon come into the dekes I always look for them but have never seen one. On the topic of rare ducks, I saw a single blue-wing teal on a reservoir near the town of Silver Lake a few years back.

Also, a local taxidermist used to raise mandarins. Joe

[ 01-24-2003, 12:39 PM: Message edited by: Salmonator ]

[Boedy]

heres another

[birdhunter]

Well, a little late now, but we've had a Eurasian widgeon hanging around Corvallis the past couple of days. Don't know if it's the same one from Albany but he's in a flock of mallards and was over in some wetlands on the west side of town. Cool bird to see.

[Killertraylor]

I was at my taxidermist yesterday picking up my pheasant, chukar, drake spoony and green-winged teal and saw a mandarin on his wall - killed this year. I asked him where it came from and he said from a game farm. It looked awesome - the neck feathers poof out - anyway, it looks like you can get them in "non-native hunting" conditions.

[Salmonator]

Ben, I meant that it seems like you will more than likely not see more than one in EACH flock. Then again, I've never seen more than one in a day so there very well may only be one of the buggers flying around :grin:

[Fishrite]

Hey wifeand3kids:
Years ago there were 2 Mandarin ducks up by the" Lake line" in Oregon City. The male was a tough dude..... he kicked some serious butt! He would run any Drake Mallard away from the back of our boat. They are really beautiful ducks. Fishrite