This week I had the profound pleasure to watch an exquisite Azure Kingfisher as it perched and plunged.
1/800, f/5.6, ISO 1600
Canon 5DSR, Canon 200-400mm f/4.0 L IS USM
To give an idea of scale, this tiny kingfisher is perched on a garden stake. These birds are about 18cm from the tip of the bill to the tip of the tail, and they weigh about 35g. The colours are almost indescribably beautiful violet-blues with rich rufous underparts. And what a cute little tail! Adult birds can have a small white tip to their bill, while juveniles can have a larger white tip which makes me think this is likely to be a young bird.
Azure Kingfishers feed by perching above water and plunging headfirst to catch their prey. Their splashes are surprisingly dramatic.
Azure Kingfishers form monogamous pairs and raise their young in burrows dug into creek and river banks, close to water. And this is where shotguns become an issue. For the three months of Victoria’s duck shooting season there are almost twenty thousand sites where it is legal to shoot, up to eight species of native waterbirds. Depending on the bag limits that are set, this can equate to about half a million dead and injured birds (at a ratio of 3:1 respectively). But it’s not only ‘game’ birds that are impacted. Each year thousands of non-target birds are shot, including threatened species like Freckled Duck and Blue-billed Duck, along with pelicans, swans, coot, raptors and cormorants. Although I’ve not seen any kingfishers that have been killed or injured by shotgun pellets, it is certain that, along with all wetlands wildlife, they have been impacted by the booming roar of shotguns and the sounds of distressed, dead and dying birds.
Instead of repeating information that I’ve given in the past I’ll redirect you to informative posts that explain more about the duck shooting season and why I am so passionately calling for a permanent ban. It is not, as I used to imagine, about a handful of overall wearing farmers wandering down to their dam and mindfully shooting a duck for Sunday lunch.
My daughter was at the wetlands on opening day in 2017 when even the Game Management Authority admitted that ‘In addition to illegal behaviour … many hunters were behaving unethically or irresponsibly. Hunters have been taking excessively long shots well outside of their shooting skills distance, resulting in wounding and lost birds. Some made no attempt to recover downed birds and kept shooting. This sort of behaviour is illegal or unethical’. Her moving, firsthand account can be read in the lirralirra post Hope Amongst Horror
More information can be found by reading the Season of Shame posts (links in the Favourites section of the righthand sidebar) and in the AGNPOTY Again post where an image of mine associated with shooting was a finalist in the Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year 2019 competition. Other relevant posts can be found by searching for ‘duck shooting’ in the search bar.
The Victorian Government usually calls the season at the start of January, though they’ve also been called before Christmas and in 2009 the season wasn’t called until early February. 2009 was the year of the catastrophic Black Saturday bushfires and instead of refusing to permit a season the Brumby government called a shortened season with a reduced bag limit, despite there being very few ducks on the wetlands.
If you haven’t yet written to your local MP, the Premier and the decision-making ministers there could still be time for your views to be counted: daniel.andrews@parliament.vic.gov.au, jaclyn.symes@parliament.vic.gov.au, and lily.d’ambrosio@parliament.vic.gov.au
I am wavering between fear that a devastating season will be called and hope that the Labor Government will continue its progressive animal welfare agenda and call a moratorium this year.
Happy birding
Kim
~ Facebook page Kim Wormald – lirralirra
~ Facebook group Ethical Bird Photography
Hi Kim
Keep up the good work. Your photo is Ceyx azureus
Oh thanks for that Roy, looks like there was a bit of divine (or at least sacred) intervention going on
Stunning pic of the kingfisher…. why would anyone want to shoot a bird like this, or any other native species?
Thank you Phillip. I’ve never seen one that has been shot, I was more trying to point out how horrendously disruptive the shooting season is to all wildlife. I think Alyssa’s comment explains it better than I did. I totally agree about shooting any native species, it beggars belief.
How awful! (the hunting, not the kingfisher) Is one billion wildlife deaths not enough this year? When will our government pull their head out of the polls and actually look at sustaining the beauty we have, even if it’s not popular with their peers.
I loved how some self-professed hunters were proactively rescuing wildlife, showing respect and dignity for life in the midst of our crisis.
They’re probably the same shooters who called themselves conservationists and guardians of the wetlands. I shake my head in disbelief.
There is no place in a civilised society for wantonly killing wildlife and this must be stopped. Victoria can hang its head in shame and every politician of any persuasion who sits in their ivory tower and allows this horrific killfest to occur is complicit.
Recreational duck shooting was banned in Western Australia in 1990, NSW in 1995 and in Queensland in 2005. Banning duck hunting in Victoria must happen now and anyone who loves these amazing, unique and truly beautiful birds who are such a vital part of our natural environments and ecosystems must speak up now for the voiceless and demand these abhorrent, violent, brutal killing sprees be banned forever.
Premier Dan Andrews and his Ministers should be reminded that they are in a position of power and are responsible for creating the kind of environment on Earth that they will leave behind and their actions in continuing to allow this abhorrent killing of these precious birds show their legacy will be one of death and destruction to our native wildlife and that is a legacy of which no compassionate, caring, kind and honourable person would be proud.
“The greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” Mahatma Gandhi
Thank you Kim and your daughter and all those courageous wildlife rescuers who put their lives at risk to save our gentle and precious feathered friends; for taking action and never giving up.
I agree Barbara. The Gandhi quote is beautiful, it should be prominently displayed in parliament. I have the upmost respect for the rescuers and join you in thanking them.
Gosh what a stunning photo of a magnificent bird. Duck shooting is truly horrific and I believe the the mass intrusion, noise, destruction and dogs impacts all wetland birdlife. Thanks for raising this incredibly important issue!
Thank you, it’s such a beautiful little bird. I should have mentioned all the off-lead dogs etc.
“There was a problem delivering your message to jaclyn.symes@parliament.vic.gov.au. Contact the remote server administrator for details.”
Sent an email — received error message above for all email addresses…. (when cut & pasted, so they were correct as you had them & I also checked…..
I have just called her office Dee and have been given this email address as a back up: lillie.spruce@ecodev.vic.gov.au
Did you receive an error message for all addresses? I hope that’s not what you mean. Thank you so much for writing, I hope we can ensure your emails are received
I fervently hope that this is the year that no hunting season is declared. There has been MORE than enough death and destruction dealt to our wildlife and its habitat this year already.
And thank you for this sparkling beauty. Thank you so much.
Thank you EC, and, as usual, I agree with you
A beautiful photograph of the kingfisher. Sorry to hear about the unethical hunting practices.
Thank you Thomas, on both counts