A beautiful breed of duck was spotted in Richmond last weekend (December 2).
The mandarin duck, widely regarded as the world's most beautiful duck, was spotted by an eagle eyed passer-by at Barnes Common.
Tom sent the Richmond and Twickenham Time pictures of the rare duck, which is native to China and Japan.
The first mandarins were imported to Britain in the mid-18th century, but it wasn't until the 1930s that escapes from wildfowl collection started breeding here.
The first birds to escape did so from Alfred Ezra's collection at Foxwarren Park, near Cobham in Surrey, and this area remains one of the strongholds of mandarins in England.
If anyone else has spotted these beautiful send your pictures to amar.mehta@newsquest.co.uk
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