WTP, Melbourne

Hi All,

Further to Jen's email  about the Duck Hunters, I spoke to a WTP warden 
and duck shooting is ILLEGAL on the foreshore on the boundry of the WTP. 
Apparently it use to be legal, so long as you shot out to sea, and not 
into the farm itself, but it is now outlawed totally. It was a real shock 
to see this happening out there though...and by a daddy/daughter team! 
They were positioned at the Lake Borrie outlet which is a 'fresh' water 
source and an obvious gathering point for large numbers of waterfowl. The 
coastal wetlands along the foreshore and thick reedbeds, gave them an easy 
escape by boat, by anyone that approached by road. I watched them from the 
Little River birdhide and each shot resonanted enough along the foreshore 
to scare birds at roost at the Little River mouth. A real disturbance to 
such a beautiful day at the farm. 

Can anyone suggest who to call to alert the appropriate wildlife officers 
to these incidents? The WTP warden was only able to ask them to leave, and 
not prosecute in anyway. 

Anyway, plenty of good birds around as usual.  A stunning  adult 
White-bellied Sea Eagle flew past the Little River mouth making even the 
Pelicans take flight.  An Australian Bittern flushed from a lagoon behind 
Barrow Pits. A few Double Banded Plovers also at the Little River mouth 
including one with traces of its maroon -coloured chest band. And one 
interesting sighting was three Australian Grebe's on Little River. To be 
honest i never really pay much attention to the grebes, but someone once 
told me that as hard as you search you'll never find an aussie grebe at 
the WTP.   Has anyone ever recorded them in the WTP before? 

Cheers, 

Peter


 

 




Jennifer Spry <> 
Sent by: 
04/06/2006 08:42 PM
Please respond to



To
"" <>
cc

Subject
[Birding-Aus] WTP, Melbourne






Hi all,

A beautiful day at Werribee today with three Wood Sandpiper coming into
breeding plumage on the eastern conservation pond.

A not so beautiful sight was a pair of duck hunters in a small aluminium
boat cruising between Kirks Point and the mouth of the Little River. We
did not see them shooting but they did load a bag back onto the boat
near Kirks Point. We reported them via mobile phone and they left when
they saw the treatment staff arriving in their ute.

Apart from that the sun was out, the birds were plentiful and the breeze
was gentle, all in all a gorgeous day.

Jen


===============================
www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com

To unsubscribe from this mailing list, 
send the message:
unsubscribe 
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to: 
===============================

===============================
www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com

To unsubscribe from this mailing list, 
send the message:
unsubscribe 
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to: 
===============================