I think it’s related to the yabby population which are MDs preferred food. New water bodies have lots of yabbies’ because they feed on the newly submerged/dead vegetation. As the water body ages the amount of dead vegetation in it reduces as do the yabbies and consequently the MDs LBGriffin used to have MDs years ago but I haven’t seen any there for years
Peter
From: Martin Butterfield [
Sent: Tuesday, 11 March 2014 5:21 AM
To: Duncan McCaskill
Cc: Julie Clark; COG Chatline
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] Musk Duck feeding dependent young at Yerrabi
It is all a matter of timing. When I first arrived in Canberra - 1983 - Musk Duck were very easy to spot in Lake Ginninderra. They stopped being seen there late in the decade and have never come back.
On 10 March 2014 20:38, Duncan McCaskill <m("gmail.com","duncan.mccaskill");" target="_blank">> wrote:
As far as I can recall, Yerrabi Pond has had Musk Ducks ever since it has had any water. There must be something about that pond that is particularly attractive to Musk Ducks - maybe a shallow depth? I have never seen them downstream in Lake Ginninderra.
