HIGHLIGHT: NEW JERSEY
Bergen: If it walks like a Mandarin Duck and quacks like a Mandarin Duck, then it must be New York’s famed Mandarin Duck – a sensation since it first appeared in Central Park in October. So what’s it doing in North Jersey? It seems perhaps the rare, colorful waterfowl is a bridge-and-tunnel duck. “Mandarin Patinkin,” as he’s been dubbed by Gothamist, disappeared for several extended trips in October. Based on local sightings, bird-watchers have found two of his alternate hangouts: in the lake at James J. Braddock North Hudson Park in North Bergen, and in Edgewater. He’s liable to visit North Jersey again, experts say.