Mandarin Duck spotted in Helsinki

Today, I went to school and was standing in line to get my lunch, when my teacher came up to me and informed me that we wouldn't have class today. Actually, he said what are you doing here yesterday i said we won't have class. Oh well, at least I was able to eat my free school lunch. It was lasagna. No worries, because I had planned on walking around Töölö Bay to get some more bird shots. I had been there last week and shot some footage and wanted more.
As soon as I got there, I saw that there were mallards (sinisorsa, Anas platyrhynchos) and gulls (naurulokki, Larus ridibundus) about. Soon, two swans (kyhmyjoursen, Cygnus olor) came swimming towards me. I didn't know if they were expecting food or if they were bothered by my standing too close to the shore.

Finally, I continued on my way. There is a road on the side close to the railroad tracks which goes past some huvilat and over a bridge. It comes down by the duck wintering place. Then, I followed a footpath close to the shore among the reeds. There are these red strips of cloth hanging from the birch trees. It was giving me the blair witch project. Last time I was there, a week ago, maybe, there was still ice on the surface. Today, it was completely melted away. Last time, too, there were way more black-headed gulls about. I was trying to get shots of them flying around. Later, when I got home and looked these birds up in my Kotimaan Luonto-opas, I saw that there were a few shots of the lesser black-headed gull (selkälokki, Larus fuscus). Since there were pigeons (kesykyyhky, Columba livia) around, I got a few shots of them. Well, whatever birds I saw I took photos of.


Finall, I made my way around near Finlandia talo and saw a gathering of various fowl, including the swans. There were some women taking photos of them. That is when I noticed these two beautiful birds. I had no idea what they were. So, of course when I got home I looked them up but they weren't in the book. We tried the internet and after awhile we finally found out what they were.

Behold the mandarin duck (Aix galericulata). These were two drakes, or male ducks. In Ilta Sanomat they were called a poikapari. How cute. They were really beautiful. Wouldn't you know it. By the time I arrive there and took a few shots, my memory card became full. This was actually my second memory card that I had put in. The first one which is 512mb was already maxed. This back up was only 125mb. I really need to get another one. The batteries ran out too, but I had a second set ready. Unfourtunatly, nearly all of these shots were taken with 16x digital zoom. Most sucky of all was that as I was running out of space, I had to delete some earlier photos and I had to bring down the file size to 640 x 480. Blasted. Well, I can't make any large prints of these but they look pretty good on an internet page.