Hi All,
See below correspondence from Murray who was looking at Pacific Black Ducks.
I don’t have contact details for Roger Curnow, William Stephison, or Alison Milton so if this can be passed on that would be great (or hopefully they will see it on the chatline).
Cheers Lori
Lori Gould
Program Manager
Woodlands and Wetlands Trust (Jerrabomberra Wetlands)
M: 0439 030 058
PO Box 58 Fyshwick ACT 2609
www.woodlandsandwetlands.org.au
From: Murray Williams <>
Sent: Friday, 5 July 2019 6:48 PM
To: Lori Gould <>
Subject: Pacific black ducks
Hello Lori
About 18 months ago I came wandering into your workplace to ask about Pacific black ducks, and especially about people who may have good photographs of the birds. Your response was fantastic
and not only did several folk – Michael Mulvaney, Con Boekel, Geoffrey Dabb, Roger Curnow, William Stephison, Bill Hall, and Alison Milton – provide me with great images, they also directed me to
very helpful online photo collections. Your, and their, contributions were absolutely pivotal to my study.
At the time, my interest was in trying to establish just how variable the plumages were of black ducks from throughout the full Aiustralian, NZ and Pacific range of the species so that I might thereafter be able to interpret
the phenotypic diversity that the presence of mallards in NZ has bequeathed us. Despite that, it soon became apparent to me that the old regional taxonomies that once applied to this species, but which have been put aside, seemed to be quite robust. So the
study took an additional shift into the taxonomic “cauldron”.
I have now published the outcome of this work….one detailing the phenotypic variability regionally, and the other concentrating on hybrids with mallards in NZ . Should you be interested to view
these, you can access them at https://www.dropbox.com/sh/xut6n2l1uh1reor/AAD96zF8t5MxNFqP3qEw62Dca?dl=0
May I now ask one further favour please. I seem not to have retained the email contacts of your helpful associates. I would be delighted
if you could forward this email to them please. I remain immensely appreciative of their help…and the importance of that I hope you, and they, can see in the text.
Thank you, and kind regards
Murray Williams
