20 July 2025 - Hollingworth Lake

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Mandarin Duck, Peregrine

Back to a relatively dull day today, but scanning from the hide, I found a female Mandarin Duck amongst the Mallard. It apparently had been there the day before (Jason had seen it) but I didn't know, so just chanced upon it. It was relatively elusive, spending quite a bit of time behind the island, but did swim out and across the pool at one point.

When I got to the Pavilion area, I heard a strange call and scanned across the lake to see a juvenile Peregrine chasing an Oystercatcher low over the water. At one point the Oystercatcher dipped into the water as an evation tactic, and it must have worked, since the Peregrine got fed up and began gaining hight before disappearing across the lake towards Ealees. My photos were a bit rushed, and underexposed; the whole thing was over in a matter of seconds.

Mandarin Duck, 1/500 sec, f/7.1, 500 mm, ISO 4000

Peregrine , 1/800 sec, f/7.1, 500 mm, ISO 100 (view full size image)