As I looked into her ruby red eye, and she looked into mine (not ruby red), I found myself wondering what she’s thinking as she dabbles her way through the duckweed (not Azolla).
This female Chestnut Teal is dabbling in a pond of duckweed. It’s difficult to believe that waterbirds can swim on this sea of water-weed.
I initially thought this was Azolla and as I can’t change the heading I’ll leave the Azolla information here. Azolla is a native, aquatic fern that grows in still, or virtually still, waters. It is a remarkable plant that can double its mass in less than a week if the temperature, pH and nutrient levels are consistently good. Its leaves are small and it roots dangle about 40cm into the water. Waterbirds, fish and a range of invertebrates feed on Azolla and, by limiting the amount of sunlight that penetrates the water, it effectively suppresses the development of algal blooms. Azolla can form mats over water than are dense enough to prevent mosquitoes from breeding.
Over the next few weeks I’ll be trying to get some beautiful, hopefully emotive, photographs of native waterbirds – birds that are protected all year until it’s time to be blasted with shotgun pellets during the Victorian duck shooting season. Chestnut Teals mate for life and stay together all year. These small ducks are taken by many predators including reptiles, Australasian Swamphens, Musk Ducks, Peregrine Falcons, Swamp Harriers, cats, foxes and shooters #banduckshooting
I have taken hundreds of photographs over the past few days, some absolute beauties and some interesting behaviours. My desktop can’t cope with the images yet (lots of updates needed) and my laptop is pretty ancient and difficult to use for processing images. I’m hoping that I’ll be up and running with that side of it soon. In the meantime I hope to take heaps more photographs to share with you.
Happy birding, Kim
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