I sent the email below to the list in haste early Sunday morning, but it never
arrived. As a newly moderated moderator, I think I must have discarded it
instead of approving it! So here it is again.
It's worth noting that despite the presence of lots of cars and people again on
Sunday, it seems to have settled in in the NE corner of the pond near gate 6 on
Paradise Rd, and was still there when I came past about 1pm.
Peter Shute
Sent from my iPad
Begin forwarded message:
From: Peter Shute <<>>
Date: 19 May 2013 5:39:32 AM AEST
To: Scott Ryan <<>>
Cc: Birding-Aus Aus
<<>>
Subject: Shoveler a 'No-Show' at Werribee
Given the number of birders intending to come a long way to see this bird over
the next week or so, I'm wondering what people think of the following idea:
that attempts to approach closely to get photos should be discouraged. I don't
want to start an anti photographer thread, just to make people aware of what's
at stake for others who haven't seen it yet.
Yesterday (Sat) it was fairly predictable once it had been located. It was
tending to stay in the upwind corner of Borrie and the pond west of it. At one
point two photographers asked if anyone minded it they tried to get closer, and
no one did as we'd all had a good look.
We were probably 200m from where it was sitting on the bank at the time. They
barely got 10m when the whole flock flew back into the water. We thought at the
time that it was something else that frightened them, and it probably was, but
it highlights the potential for this bird to become hard to find, even if it
only moves a kilometre. There are many inaccessible ponds at WTP.
Last week, the bird was in Walsh's Lagoon, this week in Borrie. My OBP survey
team counted 80 Aus Shovellers in T Section No. 7 pond, so that's a suitable
spot for it too. It's a very frustrating exercise negotiating all the locked
gates between these places, especially if you're by yourself. It would be great
if it could be great if one could rely on the Birdline location from the day
before to find the bird, rather than hunt around all of WTP.
On the other hand, perhaps ducks just move anyway. Any thoughts?
My Birdline photo from yesterday is from 200m with an ancient manual focus
400mm lens, a small (4/3) sensor camera and low skill levels. Recognisable, but
that's all. I'm sure those with sharper lenses and newer, bigger sensors and
some skill could do a lot better, but still not the quality photography
enthusiasts strive for. But do we really need a super sharp photo of this bird?
It looks pretty much like the pictures in the guides, and there are a million
good photos of the species from the northern hemisphere.
Peter Shute
P.S you can probably guess why an OBP team was counting ducks instead of OBPs.
Sent from my iPad
On 18/05/2013, at 5:40 PM, "Scott Ryan"
<<>> wrote:
Great news Peter.
Myself & another Canberra birder are planning on driving down Sunday night if
it was still around.
Are there any birding-aussers who would be interested in meeting us out there
on Mon or Tues morning for a twitch?
Sent from my iPhone
On 18/05/2013, at 5:24 PM, Peter Shute
<<>> wrote:
It's still around, I found it easily at about 1pm today - I just drove to where
all the cars were parked and got someone to point it out. I had driven past
this spot 30 minutes before, and missed it. It's easy to see if it's facing
you, not so easy if it's facing away or distant.
It was at the north east corner of Lake Borrie, and I think it had been there
an hour or so before I got there. Soon after that, it flew to the north east
corner of the pond to the west of Lake Borrie. This is the pond that's
separated from Lake Borrie by a narrow causeway you can drive on.
Then it seemed to just drift with the wind almost to the east side of that
pond, where it encountered 3 or 4 male Australasian Shovelers swimming south
west. It swam hard to catch up with them, gave up, caught up again, then they
all swam back to the north east corner. There it got out on the bank for a
while till all the ducks there flew back into the water. I left at about 2.30
after having watched it for about 1 and 1/2 hours.
Thanks to whoever found it first today, I think it was Steve Davidson, and to
those who pointed it out to me later. Sorry you missed it, John, it's the luck
of the draw when a bird could be at any of dozens of ponds. I tried a couple of
times when there was one here in 2011, and never found it. Hopefully this one
will stick around longer than that one did.
Peter Shute
________________________________
From:
<>
<>]
On Behalf Of John Tongue <>]
Sent: Saturday, 18 May 2013 10:50 AM
To: Birding-Aus Aus
Subject: Shoveler a 'No-Show' at Werribee
Sadly, despite a day of concerted searching around Walsh's Lagoon, from there
to the Borrow Pits, and around Lake Borrie, the Northern Shoveler was not to be
seen. A quick check around T-Section late in the afternoon also failed to turn
up the Aus Bittern seen recently.
Not the most successful in terms of targets, but sill, a very pleasant day.
John Tongue
Ulverstone, Tas.
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