With all the talk of a Northern Shoveller at Werribee, and having myself
just returned from another work-trip to eastern Austria, where it is
possibly the commonest species of duck, I would be interested to hear,
from someone who saw the Werribee bird, what plumage it had. The
thousands of male shoveller I saw in early September on the ponds round
the Neusiedler See were all in eclipse plumage -- pretty much like the
female except that they have a touch of bluish-grey about the head,
which is oddly reminiscent of the Australian species. Was the Werribee
bird a male, and was it in breeding plumage, suggesting it has not only
its hemispheres, but also its seasons muddled?
John Clifton-Everest
--
Associate Professor John M. Clifton-Everest
Department of Germanic Studies
University of Sydney
(61) (2) 9351 2262
Fax (61) (2) 9351 5318
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