By Shijie of Hangzhou Daily

The first couple of mandarin ducks arrived at the West Lake the day before yesterday. "When I went around the Lake that day, I was disappointed to find there are only few migratory birds in the area. Suddenly, a flash of red somewhere on the shore caught my sight. I lost no time to lift up my telescope and noted it was a male mandarin duck, the first one in Hangzhou this year" said Zhu Chenzhou, a photographer who has shoot wild birds in West Lake for over 9 years. Excited by the sight of the male mandarin duck, he adjusted the long camera lens and detected in his viewfinder a female mandarin duck, right behind the male one. A couple of them! The scene quite deserve its name as "love birds"

Yesterday afternoon, more and more mandarin ducks come to scene spot of Huagang. "At least 13 mandarin ducks came to West Lake" said Zhu, who also said that this year mandarin immigrate to Hangzhou half month later comparing to previous years. Presently, besides mandarin ducks, there are also some cormorants in the outer lake and dozen of specked-Nib Ducks in the inner lake. Large group of mallards also showed up occasionally. But it still can not tell how long these birds would stay in Hangzhou.