Hello all,
North Lakes is a large housing development in what used to be a pine plantation
a short distance north of Brisbane in SE Queensland, Australia.
It is also a short distance from where I live at Woody Point.
Some time ago the developers encountered some criticism for promoting the
'natural' aspect of their development techniques by using the Mallard as their
'symbol'.
Large billboards in the area displayed groups of birds of that species
apparently living happily with the man-made environment.
It was suggested to the company that it might be more acceptable if this
introduced species was replaced by a native one.
However, the billboards remained unchanged.
Today (4/9/01), instead of driving past as I usually do, I made a quick (long
over-due) visit to the area to check out
the bird hide they were planning to install.
The bird hide (more like a viewing station) was there and so
were.................
several male Mallard ducks!
The ducks, along with some Australasian Little Grebes, cormorants, Darter, Royal
Spoonbills, Great Egret, and various other species, were happily floating around
on the large man-engineered lake that gives the development its name.
Hmmmmm........perhaps I am a cynic, but.........
On a more positive note.....
I also observed, around the lake, a Swamp Harrier and a Buff-banded Rail.
Bob Inglis
Woody point
SE Queensland
Australia.
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding/index.html
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message
"unsubscribe birding-aus" (no quotes, no Subject line)
to
|
