lirralirra

A Pied Stilt in flight, with its needle-like bill pointing the way and its long pink legs trailing behind, is a pretty lovely sight.

I think stilts are remarkable birds – they are graceful when feeding and in flight and I could watch them for hours – actually I have watched them for hours. There are three details in this image that you might not notice at first glance: they have a red iris, there is a slight iridescent sheen to their black feathers, and there are sharp black nails (or claws) on each of their long pink toes.

With the duck shooting season over for the year (and hopefully forever) these birds are free again to live and fly over their wetlands without the fear of shooters.

I wish Georgia had been able to send her evocative meme to the inquiry – I’ll ask her if she’d like to send it to her member of parliament.

The Parliamentary Inquiry has received over 9000 submissions, eclipsing all previous records. Here’s a table showing the record-breaking submissions for the past few years with the native bird shooting inquiry far outstripping all previous record holders:

Submissions are gradually being made public and can be viewed here: Native Bird Shooting Parliamentary Inquiry

So far the ‘ban’ submissions significantly outweigh the ‘keep shooting’ submissions – 1632 have been made public.

I shared photographs of a Pied Stilt a few years ago when they were called Black-winged Stilts (they have also been known as White-headed Stilt). There are some beaut shots here: Lirralirra – Black-winged Stilt

Happy birding, Kim

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