Hi all,
This year Lake Murphy became the focus of attention at the start of the
Victorian duck shooting season. After years of drought and no flooding rains
to refill dry wetlands, the best wetlands for game species, in this part of
northern Victoria at least, were the few sites where "environmental flows"
were used to replenish dry areas. All these areas were open for shooting
this year.
Today I returned to Lake Murphy, having given it a wide berth whilst the
commotion died down, keen to see what effect the the opening of the duck
shooting season has had on all the birds using the lake, not just the ducks.
It was a beautiful, fine,warm sunny afternoon and the lake was generally
peaceful. A couple of campsites were occupied by middle aged, camouflaged
men with beer guts. There was no shooting while I was there. There were no
ducks!
I scanned most of the open water of the lake and found 3 Black Duck, one
looking a bit disorientated, and 1 Grey Teal. This is in contrast to the
many thousands of duck of a number of species present earlier in the month.
Not surprisingly those that were not hit have left the lake. (do they know
that there's no season in NSW?).
The most abundant species remaining were the Black swans, still with many
young in tow. There were just a few Coot,Hoary-headed grebes, some Pelican,
White-faced Herons, a few Spoonbill and Whistling kites in abundance
(cleaning up the scraps?)
There was however still a fair smattering of waders around the edges though
in reduced numbers, especially Black-winged Stilts and Sharp-tailed
Sandpipers which were reduced to a couple of hundred each.
I was ready to make a quick drive around and go home until I found a small
flock of waders which happened to include 5 Wood Sandpipers, 1 Pectoral
sandpiper, and 1 Long-toed Stint. So it seems that they could put up with
the noise and hang around. There were also a few Curlew Sandpipers,
Red-necked Stints and 1 Double-banded Plover.
So I left happy with the birding, just hoping that most of the duck have
found refuge across the border.
And as for the hunters, well they might aswell go home!
Simon starr,
Yarrawalla,
Northern victoria.
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