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Today I went on the Boxvale Track, at Welby
(near Mittagong), in the Southern Highlands. I met a fellow birder, who told me
about a reservoir just a short distance down the track (hidden by a rocky
outcrop), where he said there were Musk Ducks.
As we were standing in a deep sandstone
gully, with a very small creek, during this conversation, this was quite a
surprise to me. The environment seemed so unlikely for musk Ducks.
Anyway, I followed his instructions and sure
enough there was a male Musk Duck there. He was displaying, and after a
short period of time a female swam very directly across the lake to join him.
They circled several times, then she seemed to disappear. I assume that
they mated, (with her in a nearly submerged position), as there was a lot
of paddling going on, resulting in a lot of water disturbance.
The female then reappeared, and shortly
afterwards, swam away from the male, who was now sitting very high in the water,
making his shrill whistling calls, interspersed with "popping"
noises.
Late afternoon, 5:00pm, mild weather (about
20 degrees). Light not good, but some photos (of poor quality) are available on
my blog report of this event.
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