On the brink

This sweet Grey Teal is balancing somewhat precariously at the edge of a small pond.

Grey Teal (Anas gracilis)
1/800, f/5.6, ISO 800

Grey Teal are small native ducks, their brown feathers are mostly fringed with buff, they have remarkably red eyes and soft white throats. They are often confused with female Chestnut Teal but the key distinguisher is that female chestnuts have pale brown throats.

These small ducks are amazing as they fly vast distances in search of water. This is of particular concern this year as the rainfall for much of southeastern Australia, including parts of Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, has been ‘very much below average’ according to the Bureau of Meteorology. I’m concerned that our declining waterbirds will congregate in the remaining wetlands and lakes and be sitting ducks for shooters.

The Victorian shooting season was cancelled in 2007 and 2008, due to drought conditions, which gave our native waterbirds an opportunity to raise their ducklings. Waterbird numbers declined significantly during the 2015 drought but instead of cancelling the 2016 shooting season a bag limit was set. It didn’t work; by October 2016 waterbird numbers had fallen to their lowest level, ever. With approximately 20,000 shooting sites around Victoria it is obviously, as confirmed by the Pegasus Report, impossible for bag limits to be monitored.

I am sickened by the thought of the shooting season that is due to begin on 16th March 2019 with its ineffective bag limits. I’m sickened by the thought of grown men firing 150-200 shotgun pellets per blast into mixed flocks of distressed birds. I’m sickened by the thought of the injured birds that will die slowly among the reeds, by the cries of terrified young waterbirds, by the number of endangered species shot each year. I’m sickened by the thought of the whoops of joy yelled by shooters as yet another ‘spinner’ falls from the sky.

Professor Richard Kingsford, UNSW, has been conducting comprehensive surveys of waterbird populations in eastern Australia since 1983. The chart above is part of his most recent survey – what will happen next if climate change brings us another year of increasing temperatures and reduced rainfall?

I can’t help but think of the fate of Passenger Pigeons. Until the arrival of Europeans in North America they are believed to have been the most abundant bird species on the planet, with between 3 and 5 billion birds, yes, billion. Like Grey Teal, and other native waterbirds, they flew vast distances for food and water. There are records of flocks of these pigeons being so dense that they darkened the sky, and so massive that they flew over spectators for three days. These birds were hunted to extinction with the last wild Passenger Pigeon shot during the early 1900s.

This week’s image seems to symbolise the precarious future that awaits our native waterbirds.

Happy birding

Kim

NB   There is still time for the Andrews’ Government to cancel the 2019 season. If you have a spare moment please call or email your local MP, or write to a newspaper, or support the Coalition Against Duck Shooting – or all of the above along with anything else you can think of. Maybe send a link to this post, or to either Season of Shame posts listed in the right hand sidebar.

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