Hi all,
Just to throw in another possibility as to where the pintail and shoveller
came from;
I recall that a few years ago a commercial duck breeder was caught with
fertile eggs of a choice commercial duck being smuggled in from the US ( I
think his light plane crashed in Qld and they found the eggs in it).
Customs have caught smugglers leaving Australia with eggs of various native
spp. particularly of parrots, in their luggage. Viability of illegally
imported duck eggs would not be a problem for knowledgable people with the
proper timing.
If legal importation is impossible, it is not beyond the bounds of
reasonable possibility that someone would pick up a few eggs from an
enthusiast on say a cheap trip to Disneyland and bring them back.
If he(/she, sorry girls) was caught, I suppose they could claim the birds
as wild-caught vagrants!
On balance my gut feeling is that they were blow-ins on the same weather
pattern but not too recently.
Is there a site where past weather patterns can be accessed and
correlated with the possible arrival of vagrants possibly many months
before they are seen by birders?
Laurie's point re birds in moulting plumage would be particularly relevant
in that situation.
Cheers
Michael
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