G’day Martin and all,
Many years ago while working on ducks in a
large swamp near Booligal in central NSW, I saw Pacific Black Ducks, Grey Teal
and Australian Wood Ducks and the occasional Australian Shelduck launch
themselves into space and plummet to the water below, often from over 50+ feet
up – all their nesting trees were in quite deep water. Pink-eared Ducks
generally nested much lower on tree stumps or low abandoned cormorant or egret
nests and had much less of a drop. Most managed to land in the water but every
now and then one would hit various sticks at what seemed like not very nice
angles. I can remember watching several PB Ducklings hitting this particular
large stick upside down across their back. They looked for all the world as
though they had broken their backs as they floated upside down with their head
under water for about a minute. Suddenly, as though by a pre-arranged
signal, they all righted themselves and happily paddled off after Mum and their
siblings. We all need to remember that the ducklings are nothing more than a
big ball of fluff at this stage so they can bounce pretty well. Even some of
the ducklings in the Planet Earth program hit the ground pretty hard, away from
the thicker leaf litter. In our forests the leaf litter is often hard and coarse,
unlike that of the northern hemisphere forests. I am not sure burning would
really have any effect on how hard they hit the ground in Australia.
If I remember when I go in to the ANWC
tomorrow I will check out the weight of some duckling specimens we have –
they don’t weigh much and are tough little buggers!
Cheers,
Mark
From: martin
butterfield [
Sent: Sunday, 4 March 2007 8:46 PM
To: Cog line
Subject: [canberrabirds] Landing
rights (rites?)
I have just watched Planet Earth which featured inter alia Mandarin
Ducks emerging from a nest hollow and plummeting to earth. It seemed to
me that the soft landing in leaf litter played a large part in their
survival.. Has anyone researched the importance of a soft surface on the
survival of Australian Wood Duck chicks? Do hazard reduction burns reduce
the survival of the ducklings by removing the litter under the nest hollows?
