I don’t even know where to begin… maybe I’ll start with the lone Australian Shelduck, two amazing women and a sea of feathers.
Last weekend we visited several lakes and wetlands in regional Victoria. For nine months of the year these are places of tranquility. I especially love sunrises as the bird life gradually wakens with soft sweet sounds and gentle preening. For the next three months these lakes will be places of horror from half an hour before sunrise until half an hour after sunset. In fact they’ll be places of horror for 24 hours a day as although the shooting may stop at night the wetland wildlife has been traumatised and 25% of shot birds are not killed outright but are huddled, shaking and terrified among the reeds.
When we arrived at this lake a lone Australian Shelduck was standing at the edge of the water. It was the only bird in sight. Australian Shelduck (called Mountain Duck by shooters) are monogamous and usually seen in large family groups or massive flocks. I have never seen a lone shelduck before. It was ominous.
We couldn’t get to the shelduck to see if it was injured, instead we walked along the lakeside and came across a large feather pit. I’ve shared images of the feather pit first, don’t read on if you’d rather not see any graphic shots. I have seen many feather pits but I am still sickened by the sight of a sea of feathers, everywhere you look, all plucked from native birds that were contentedly living in their own places until shotguns shattered the peace.
These awesome rescuers saw signs of recent digging among the feathers (the sound of flies and the stench of rotting birds is seared into my memory) so they grabbed my shovel and uncovered the heads and bodies of many birds, mainly teal and Pacific Black Duck but also these three Australian Shelduck which hadn’t had any meat taken from them. The birds were completely whole, unbreasted, just killed and abandoned. This is illegal as well as immoral. Duck shooting is impossible to monitor for compliance. Shooters can shoot at almost 20,000 sites across Victoria and there are only a handful of compliance officers.
The lake was eerily quiet but I could imagine how it would have been when these birds were killed; the booming sound of shotguns, the fearful alarm calls of the birds and the joyful shouts of the shooters. I’ve heard it before.
The shelduck above were flying free at the Western Treatment Plant. They remind me of the duck ornaments my grandmother had hanging on her lounge room wall.
There is something so gentle-looking about ducks. Two of the usual ‘game’ species have been removed from the species shooters can kill this year, namely Hardhead and Australasian Shovelers (aka Blue-winged Shoveler). Despite this, Tash Bassett, Wildlife Victoria’s chief veterinarian, said that the first duck she treated this year was a female Australasian Shoveler – it didn’t survive. The body of a male shoveler was found nearby. Such an awful, unnecessary waste.
UNSW Professor Kingsford’s annual survey showed that waterbird numbers are horrendously low, approaching the millennium drought low, but a helicopter survey by the Game Management Authority said there are plenty to shoot. And Premier Daniel Andrews said some people like to play golf and others like to shoot ducks – if I was good at photoshop I’d create a picture of a golfer hitting the head of a Pink-eared Duck instead of a golf ball – there is no, no comparison.
I thought I’d finish this post with a sweet shot of a shelduck up-ending itself in shallow water. The green feather in this image echoes the feather in the second photograph of this post.
Happy birding, Kim
NB If you’d like to learn more about Victoria’s duck shooting season please visit posts in the favourites bar or use the search option. You could also use your search engine to find information about the Coalition Against Duck Shooting, and Regional Victorians Opposed to Duck Shooting. My thanks to everyone who has written to Daniel Andrews and others to implore them to permanently ban this archaic, cruel ‘sport’. My thanks also to the Labor politicians, and others, who are openly opposed to duck shooting.
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