Musk Ducks

["Geoffrey Dabb" <>]

You may be right, Roger.  This breeding sequence seems to be worth recording, given that the breeding would be well outside the limits indicated in HANZAB.  Another idea might be more precise observations over a full year by Gungahlin residents.  The birds (or at least one) have frequented Yerrabi Pond since it first filled, pre-housing, as those heading to the then-remote Mulligans Flat would have noticed.

 

As to display (easy enough to see and record, surely), perhaps it can occur at any time, although this is contrary to HANZAB’s ‘outside breeding season, quiet and undemonstrative’.

 

As to the variation in the lobe, I agree.  My picture clearly showed a more baroque shape for the distended lobe of the displaying bird.  ‘Flaccid’ is, I think, the word for the below example, the posterior corner not being pushed down into view.

 

 

From: roger curnow [
Sent: Tuesday, 29 April 2008 9:13 PM
To:
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] Musk Ducks

 

A couple of points relating to G's posting :   

                            The youngest were still hitching rides with their mother on April 16.
                            This would mean they hatched 1st April at latest I would guess.

 

                            There is a second mature (or almost so) male downstream on Gungahlin Pond.

                            Despite the absence of females it too was displaying madly at the week-end.
                            I guess Canberra  Musk Ducks don't know one season from another..

 

and a third,

                            the shape is dependant not only on camera angle
                            but also on whether the bird is in display mode. 

                             This is the same bird as in Geoffey's posting.

                             

                             

 

 

               roger

----- Original Message -----

From:

To:

Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2008 5:59 PM

Subject: [canberrabirds] Musk Ducks

 

The different-sized young reported by Roger from Yerrabi Pond apparently represent broods from each end of the laying season which is reported to extend from June to December.   The larger ones might be the approx-4/6-week-old young being tended by a female in January.  The smaller ones might have hatched end- February, although that seems to be pretty late.

 

A male was displaying near the dam wall this morning, which seems unseasonal, but who knows?  HANZAB says the lobe becomes ‘turgid with display’.  Shape is interesting:  more like an inverted gnome’s hat than a discus: