Kelly's swamp and the balance of good and evil

[pardalote <>]

Hi All

I went to Kelly's Swamp this afternoon, and was surprised to see a few dead carp around.  I started with Ardea hide, but quickly left as I was greeted by three people, two of which were smoking cigarettes and photographing birds, but not the "duck" that flew in. They also had some coke cans, and they gave the impression they would leave them behind.
I went off to look for crakes, and was rewarded with a Latham's Snipe, spotted crake, and spotless crake.  Moving on to the Cygnus hide made my younger brother (13 years old) happy, as he saw his first Latham's snipe. The snipe flew onto the grass in front of the hide.  The far bank revealed no more than eight red-kneeded dotterels, standing as individuals, only one pair was withing 5m of the other.  There was soon an explosion of sound and a flurry of birds flying everywhere as a large, dark shape flew over the water.  No one was too pleased to see the brown goshawk.  The brown goshawk was not harassed, but flew over to the fields to the left of the hide.
My younger brother had seen what he wanted to see, and made it known that we should go home.  I still thought we needed some more exercise, so we followed the new walking track.  We found the brown goshawk again, this time being harassed by a black-shouldered kite.  Meanwhile, a great cormorant perched next to the river watching the spectacle with an almost quizzical or bored manner.  Halfway along the walking track, a large dead carp was found on the track.  Something had been feasting well.  The fox hole near the carcass seemed to provide an acceptable explanation.

Overall, the outing at Kelly's this arvo was a bit mixed.  There were some good things, but there were also a few bad things going on in the area.  I suppose that there is always going to be ups and downs, even at Kelly's.

Matt.