#1 Hello, my name is Mr. Mandarin, I live in SoCal and sometimes visit Santee Lakes where dozens of photographers congregate every morning and evening hoping to see me
#2 Me so pretty
#3 Oh so pretty
#4 My girlfriend Ms. Mandarin often joins me on my adventures. We posed together with Mr. Mandarin here but the klutz who took this photo did not properly judge DOF.
#5 Mr. Mandarin and I are close... REALLY close... if you know what I mean
#6 But there is always some pervert lurking in the bushes, watching us do our business
#7 Mr. Mandarin gets flustered and can't perfrom, so he flies away in shame
#8 Usually to the other side of the lake where he plays with pebbles
#9 I joined him there
#10 But the moment had passed and we just ended up bickering
#11 Mr. Mandarin tried to impress me
#12 When that did not work he tried to make me jealous by flirting with the other ladies
#13 But even they were not impressed by his beauty
#14 So he was all alone and blue
#15 And decided to get into a territorial dispute with some coots
#16 He won that fight by default based on looks alone
#17 Ultimately we flew away to live happily ever after
#18 But man, he's sexy and he knows it
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This pair of Mandarin ducks has stuck around San Diego for about a month now, occasionally making an appearance at Santee Lakes. On the particular morning this series was captured I was surprised to find myself alone with him from 6:30am through 7:15am, when a young boy named Mav joined me. Mav had amazing eyesight and bird knowledge, and we tracked Mr. Mandarin together for another 45 minutes. In those 2 hrs I racked up over 1000 frames, and will probably never bother to shoot another mandarin duck in my life.
Erictator wrote:
Super sequence of pics and the narrative made me laugh, thanks for that.
Eric
Glad that you enjoyed it. My humor is usually on the racy side and my wife always has to remind me to reign it in.
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douter wrote:
Great set and story, Geek!
Douglas
Thank you
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johnohio wrote:
Cool subject ,some nice looks.
John
That male mandarin is really unique. Even the wood ducks pale next to him, and the woodies have their own beauty.
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morris wrote:
Great photos of these attractive birds
Morris
He is very good looking. This year we also have fairly regular sightings of hooded mergansers but in my (limited) experience they rarely give you interesting behavior so I am not particularly motivated to seek them out.
B Benson wrote:
Wow, many beauties I have shot at Santee before but never saw a mandarin duck. Bruce
There is a group on FB "Photo birding in San Diego" where people post every time it makes an appearance, and I have not seen anything in the past 2 weeks. May or may not be gone for the season.
Great colors! Beautiful subjects as well. Nice use of all light and reflections too.
Might be a few to consider leveling out a bit as if the water is the horizon line, #14, 11, 5 and 1.
#6 pervert is really beautiful, pure white competing with all that color and it is a stand out with your clean capture and beautiful light on the water, nice!!
Not sure whether you could have gotten both in #4 in focus but I like how you capture it and the rendering of the water, lovely image and next time take it with focus on each one so you have two images perhaps.
Enjoyed the story and the images
Karl
Karl Witt wrote:
The storyline was real maybe from experience
The only thing I will admit to is that, like Mr. Mandarin, I am sexy and I know it
Great colors! Beautiful subjects as well. Nice use of all light and reflections too.
I think that coming to birds via landscapes has helped in developing a deep appreciation for the quality of light and being able to provide some sense of depth and direction in post. So many bird images I see, including from quite a few pros, are high key and/or uniform lighting.
Might be a few to consider leveling out a bit as if the water is the horizon line, #14, 11, 5 and 1.
Thank you for the suggestion. I straightened some of them so that the ripples, which form a virtual horizon, are level. But on some the ripples were from the bird moving in the water and I felt like that provides a sense of motion and direction. Will take a closer look at the ones you list.
#6 pervert is really beautiful, pure white competing with all that color and it is a stand out with your clean capture and beautiful light on the water, nice!!
Thank you, it is one of my favorites from this series too. Around San Diego many people seem to dismiss the egrets as not an interesting subject. But catching them in action, with wings flexing, head in the water, or pre landing is sooo elegant. Perhaps it is my own bias. I would rather shoot two coots fighting than the rarest bird perched on a branch doing nothing.
Not sure whether you could have gotten both in #4 in focus but I like how you capture it and the rendering of the water, lovely image and next time take it with focus on each one so you have two images perhaps.
I definitely was at a too wide aperture for this one. The background was rather featureless and the light was good enough by then, I could have been at f/8 or even f/11.
Enjoyed the story and the images
Karl
Thank you for taking the time to comment, much appreciated. With bird photography I always try to have a story going on.
maybe from experience 
