These little guy's are a bit early ? I took these photo's last week end
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Nice looking duck, and I love all the little ones. Nice pics too. Yes, it does seem out of season. All the duck families I've seen recently have grown chicks now.
Karen
Brisbane southside.
Thanks Karen,
They were on the dam in front of the house along with these Australasian Grebes and other wood ducks
The parents were very protective and kept the young away from me, I even hid in the long grass on the bank for an hour and they wouldn't come any closer
Matt
Nice photos Matt.
Regards
Shane
From your great photos, Matt, it looks as though you might have a good amount of wetland vegetation around your dam. Do you get birds like rails & swamp hens?
The ducklings are so cute, thanks for posting!
Nothing better than a duck and her ducklings. Love the grebe shot, one of my favorites.
Woko, The dam has only got long grasses and some reeds, always has a consistant water flow although the water level does very with the rainfall. The Shoalhaven River is only about 75 metres behind the dam. I have seen several swamphens but only once have I seen a pair of buff-banded rails. We only moved into the property in late November, looking forward to seeing what spring brings.
Matt
Hey Matt,
Great photos, thanks for posting them. Whereabouts are you (sorry, Shoalhaven River doesn't mean anything to me with my level of ignorance!). I gather they'll breed anytime after good rain, but normal from August... so have you had rain that might have prompted this where you are?
You're obviously committed if you'll sit in the reeds for an hour. Good on you! Will look forward to the progress photos.
Cheers,
Scott.
Reeds are a good start, matt. Since the drought broke here we've had an explosion of Knobby Club Rush Isolepis nodosa along our creek line & there are several other wetland plants which are appearing. So it'll be interesting to see what comes of the wetland vegetation around your dam. Do you run stock? If so do you exclude stock from part of your dam's edge to encourage regeneration of wetland plants? Strategies like this are often useful in encouraging habitat for water birds.
Woko,
The dam is actually on the neighbours property which is run by the anglican church and they run 2 conferrence and camp centres. I think they are just leasing the pastures out to a near by cattle farm. As to an exclusion area the main feed into the dam is on the other side of the fence and the cattle have no access to about 300m of creek which have some trees but mostly grasses growing on the edges. The Shoalhaven river is just behind the dam which is a major river down this way, which is about 2.5 hr south of sydney and about 35 minutes in from the beach and nestled into the mountain ridges amongst the national parks and state forests.
As for the ducklings we are down to 5 from this morning ( I think the fox might have got them )
Matt
Oh, how lovely they are. Although on "my lake" there are some Chestnut Teals, I have not seen any ducklings. It's always sad that they loose some of their babies. I had 23 little Wood- Ducklings two years in a row. All got eaten in one day by a pair of Wedge-tailed Eagles. Now they have gone somewhere else.
I love your stories, thanks for posting.
M-L
Nice description, Matt (except for the fox snaffling the ducklings part). No doubt the Anglican Church, as a good steward of God's handiwork, will be doing its utmost to re-establish habitat for wildlife in the area.