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Freckled Duck on Lakes in the Western District, Victoria As Part of the Fisheries and Wildlife Division's Surveys of Wetlands in Victoria, Wetlands Between Mt

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Freckled Duck on Lakes in the Western District, Victoria As Part of the Fisheries and Wildlife Division's Surveys of Wetlands in Victoria, Wetlands Between Mt AUSTRALIAN 254 CORRICK: Freckled Duck BIRD WATCHER Freckled Duck on Lakes in the Western District, Victoria As part of the Fisheries and Wildlife Division's surveys of wetlands in Victoria, wetlands between Mt. Emu Creek and Port Phillip Bay were visited between April 1978 and December 1980. Counts and observation of waterbirds have been made on all categories of wetland, other than the salt and sewage works along the western shore of Port Phillip Bay. No wetland was visited regularly throughout the period although visits covered all months of the year. Of the 680 counts of waterbirds made between April 1978 and September 1980, 12 included Freckled Duck compared with 57 counts including Pink·-eared Duck, 65 including Chestnut Teal and 199 including Grey Teal. In all Freckled Duck were seen on 20 occasions in seven months of the year. Except for one sighting on a shallow freshwater marsh, Freckled Duck were observed on open lakes which had salinities of 1.4 - 34 parts per thousand. Only the most fresh, Lake Colac, has emergent littoral vegetation, which is mainly Phragmites sp. confined to patches along sheltered non-grazed shoreline. Freckled Duck were never observed feeding and were usually standing on the shore or in shallow water, :1l most alw:1ys at the tips of narrow sandbanks, points or islands. Indi­ viduals of the species stood close together, and remained together when forced to fly. The large group on Lake Corangamite produced a continu­ ous low grumbling noise which could be heard 200 metres away in calm conditions but which stopped as soon as the birds became alert. Some birds in all groups examined closely had red bases to the bill but the red bases were never visible at long distances. The absence of records from the few wetlands with suitable breeding habitats (Frith 1967) suggests that the Freckled Duck has not bred in the region despite its probable continuous presence in the district since October 1978. The results of surveys of waterfowl shot on opening day of the duck ~eason in South Australia and Victoria (Braithwaite & Norman 1974, 1976, and 1977) show that Freckled Duck are shot almost every year at some sites. The position appears to be similar in the Western District in that Freckled Duck are shot even if they are present only as a small component of the waterfowl population (e.g. at Lake Murdeduke on February 23, 1979, eight days before opening, there were 800 Australian Shelduck, 2000 Grey Teal, 900 Shoveler, 600 Pink-eared Duck and 63 F reckled Duck) and even when the Pacific Black Duck, the species with which they are most likely to be confused by shooters, is absent. Although Wheeler (1967) and Reader's Digest (1977) include the Western District within the normal range of the Freckled Duck, pub­ lished records from the district are few; e.g. Frith (1967), Lowe & Lowe (1974), Cowling (1978), Barkla (1978), Gilmore, et at. (1979). The sightings reported here and the greater than normal number shot (500) at Bool Lagoon (R eid 1980), Lake Buloke (140) and Cullens Lake (50) indicate that in 1980 there was an unusual movement of F reckled Duck into Victoria and south-eastern South Australia. T his movement prob­ ably began in 1978 and was still evident in November 1980. Interestingly, the increase in numbers of Freckled Duck has not been associated with unusual numbers of other species. Open lakes of a wide range of salini­ ties are the!r most important habitat in the district. VOL. 8 (8) DECEMBER, 1980 CORRICK: Freckled Duck 255 Sightings of Freckled Duck in the Western District of Victoria between February 1978 and December 1980 Salinity No. of Lake parts per thousand Freckled Ducks Date Bookar 12.0 3+7t 7 Mar. 1980 Colac 1.4 3 25 Mar. 1980 Colongulac 7.5 22 26 Nov. 1979 30+1t 6 Mar. 1980 Coradgill 5.9 2 11 July 1980 5.0 11 17 Nov. 1980 Corangamite * 15 30 Nov. 1979 24.0 650 26 Aug. 1980 Gnarpurt 32 27 June 1979 Lough Calvert * 8 20 Nov. 1980 Martin iJ I Nov. 1979 Milan gil 34.0 50 2 Nov. 1979 * 50 18 Nov. 1979 25 23 Oct. 1980 * 15 17 Nov. 1980 * 37 28 Nov. 1980 Murdeduke * 3 19 Feb. 1978 9.0 32 21 Feb. 1979 * 63 23 Feb. 1979 lt 9 Apr. 1979 1§ 9 Nov. 1979 Roadside 2 km north­ east of L. Murdeduke lt 24 Mar. 1980 Unnamed shallow freshwater marsh 7 km north of Beeac * 21 Oct. 1980 *Salinity not measured. t Wings left by shooters. §Injured. References Barkla, J. G., 1978. Winter birding on "the farm" - 1978. The Bird Observer 563: 57-58. Braithwaite, L. W., & Norman, F. 1., 1974. The 1972 open season on waterfowl in south eastern Australia. C.S.I.R.O. Div. Wild/. R es. Tech. Paper no. 29. Braithwaite, L. W ., & Norman, F. 1. , 1976. The 1973 and 1974 open seasons on waterfowl in south-eastern Australia. C.S.I.R.O. Div. Wild/. R es. Tech. Memoran­ dum no. I I. Braithwaite, L. W., & Norman, F . 1., 1977. The 1975 and 1976 open seasons on waterfowl in south-eastern Australia. C.S.I.R .O. Div. Wild/. R es. Tech. M emoran­ dum no. 13. Cowling, S. J., 1978. The status of endangered waterfowl and wetlands in Australia, In: The Status of Endangered Australasian Wildlife, Royal Zoological Soc. of South Australia. Frith, H. J., 1967. Waterfowl in Australia. Angus and Robertson, Sydney. Gilmore, A. J., Emison, W. B., & Wheeler, J. R., 1979. Vertebrate fauna of the Ballarat area, Victoria. Mem. Nat. Mus. Vic., 40: 51-103. Lowe, V. T., & Lowe, T. G., 1974. The Freckled Duck in Victoria. Aust. Bird Watcher 5: 175-181. Reader's Digest, 1977. Complete Book of Australian Birds. Reader's Digest Services, Sydney, p. 98. Reid, N., 1980. The massacre at Boo! Lagoon, S.A. Bird Observer 581: 44. Wheeler, W. R ., 1967. A Handlist of the Birds of Victoria. Victorian Ornithological Research Group, Melbourne. By A. H. CORRICK, Ministry for Conservation, Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental R esearch, 123 Brown St., Heidelberg, Victoria, 3084. ABW .
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