That reminds me of my very first duck rescue I attended during duck shooting
season in NSW. I'd broken off from the group of rescuers I was with and
came across a happy looking group of ducks bobbing around on the water, so I
very purposefully walked a big arc around them as I had also noticed a
camouflaged shooter hiding behind some nearby trees. I thought that if I
spooked the ducks he'd shoot them all in flight. I was kicking myself when
I realised that they were all decoy wooden ducks put there to tempt any
passing real-life ducks to come and join them for a friendly chat --a chat
that would undoubtedly go off with a big bang...... I went on my bemused
way, shaking my head in disbelief, partly at my denseness and also at the
sight of a grown man, attired with some serious cammo gear, staked out
behind some very cute looking wooden duckies.
The dear gentleman then managed to add further insult to injury. As I
walked further away the water quite suddenly started splattering just ahead
of me and I thought it had started to rain -- it of course should have
clicked with me that it was a perfectly clear blue sky and there'd just been
a extremely loud bang. It wasn't until the small pellets landed on my head
that I realised that my pal, obviously The Son of Rambo, was purposely
shooting over my head so I'd cop the falling lead shot. Cute. I'd been
warned about it happening too. I was caught out twice in the space of a
couple of minutes but you do live and learn!!
Cheers,
Karen.
...... I was in Wexford in Ireland in a couple of years ago with a very
experienced local birder when we spied some ducks on some wetlands about 300
metres away. We scoped them up and had no trouble identifying them - bar
one. Visibility was not good with showers and wind. After about 20 minutes
of head-scratching (no, not lice) we suddenly realised that it was a decoy.
Cheers
Roy Sonnenburg
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
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