Dear All,
I also visited the Cedar Hill Swamp yesterday (thanks once again to Richard
for the directions). However as I arrived at 1 PM I didn't stand much hope
(I was driving back to Sydney from Woolgoolga). No Snipe (apart from
Latham's), Wood Sandpiper or Native-hen. Looks like the snipe remains on the
list of birds I still don't believe actually exist. However I did remove one
other species from that list the previous day (2 days into the new year and
a tick, woohoo) - Square-tailed Kite. Had great views for a good ten minutes
of a single bird over the Pacific Highway at Halfway Creek, between Grafton
and Coffs Harbour (only about 100 metres south of the Service Station). The
bird was in partial wing moult, but got great views and no doubts about the
ID.
In regard to duck hunting as far as I know there is still an open season in
Victoria and Queensland. In NSW there is a season to allow the hunting of
ducks on rice fields. The shooters have to have a licence, have to have
passed a waterfowl identification test (which is also necessary in Victoria)
and have to have permission from the land owner. There is currently a review
of the closure of the open season, with submissions being called for earlier
this year, but I don't know what the outcome was yet, with no announcement
being made.
The shooting of Hardhead at Robe sounded particularly nasty. The whole
"sport" of duck shooting is the ability to shoot them out of the air. I
remember a few years ago at Griffith where I used to involved in hunter bag
surveys that some shooters were prosecuted for shooting flightless Hardheads
(they were all pin feathers) but I can't remember whether it was becasue
they exceeded bag limit or were actaully shooting flightless birds.
Cheers,
Peter
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