Late morning today (2 May) Esme and I spent about an hour and a half
walking around Yerrabi Pond followed by a picnic lunch and wander
around the Botanic Gardens.
Nothing of particular note at either spot except for:
Yerrabi Pond - the very low number number of Eurasian Coots, as has
been noted recently on this email line. We counted a total of 17 -
which is considerably less than the numbers I have observed on others
of my infrequent visits to the Pond and which pales in comparison to
the over 600 I counted there at the end of May last year. It does
however continue the pattern I have seen at the two largish
waterbodies nearer to where I live, Pt Hut Pond and Lake Tuggeranong.
Both of these have seemed significantly Coot-impoverished since around
February this year.
Also at Yerrabi Pond, an even dozen Musk Ducks, including 2 juveniles
which I will class as dependent young because they were in the company
of an adult female and were soliciting food from her every time she
surfaced. We didnt see her actually bring any food item to the surface
while we were watching but both her behaviour and the behaviour of the
juveniles was precisely as I have previously observed when a female
was finding and bringing food to younger ducklings. I think someone
may also have recently reported this pair of juveniles. Judging by
their size, about 2/3 that of the adult female, and the fact that they
are now in adult feathers rather than the brown down that the
ducklings wear for their first few weeks, I think they probably
hatched sometime in February or very early March.
At the ANBG, 2 Rose Robins in the section that contains the beds of
grevilleas and banksias. One was a male. The other we didnt see
clearly enough to be certain but we are fairly confident, based on the
grey colour of its back and tail its flashing white tail edges, that
it too was a male. They were both very active - not foraging but
chasing each other and occasionally coming to the ground briefly.
Bruce
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