 |
| Black-necked Stork |
A Black-necked Stork and an Australian Painted Snipe have been found dead along the southern shore of Ewen Maddock Dam on the Sunshine Coast. It appears likely that the two birds were shot. I found the stork in the image above this morning.
 |
| Black-necked Stork |
The carcass was in about the same spot where I photographed this adult female Black-necked Stork on November 6 this year - about six weeks ago. The bird had been seen subsequently by other observers in this area. A couple of weeks after this sighting, Rick Franks reported to me that he found a dead Australian Painted-Snipe in the same vicinity.
.jpg) |
| Dead Painted Snipe - Picture Rick Franks |
There was no indication on the carcass of either dead bird that it had fallen victim to predators and the most likely explanation for the deaths is shooting. Black-necked Stork and Australian Painted Snipe are rare birds in south-east Queensland. My experience with the Queensland Department of Environment and Heritage Protection unfortunately is that its Wildlife Management Operations Unit does not bother even to acknowledge receipt of complaints made about the welfare of rare wildlife, let alone act on them.
Today I saw the Black-tailed Native-hen that I found on the lake's southern shore on November 20. It was in the same spot but again was extremely shy, offering no photographic opportunities. I flushed an Australian Little Bittern while kayaking along the fringe of a reedbed; another bittern was seen on November 6 in a different section of the lake.
.jpg) |
| Spotless Crake |
Two Spotless Crakes were also seen today in different places.
 |
| Black Kite |
I called in at the Nambour turf farm on my way home and was surprised to see 10 Black Kites (normally a rare bird in the region) resting on the turf.
A couple of images from the garden at home over the past couple of days:
 |
| Brush Cuckoo |
 |
| Brown Honeyeater |
It's shocking to think that these birds may have been killed deliberately. If that's the case there may well be more birds that have suffered a similar fate but not been found.
ReplyDeleteAppalling news re the Stork and Painted Snipe. I enjoy your blog updates Greg - thanks for sharing the updates.
ReplyDeleteIt is a shame to hear that these animals have died no matter how it occurred. If it was by shooting it would be even more tragic. This disgusts me but unfortunately too many people think that this type of thing is fun. As a species ourselves we have a lot to answer for, for what humans have done to other species and the environment. Hopefully through sites like these people will become more interested and concerned about different fauna and their welfare. Thanks for making us aware that this could be occurring Greg.
ReplyDeleteIt is sad and depressing news.
ReplyDeleteWorld is going wrong way....
ReplyDeleteOh this is so very sad! How lucky is it to have these birds in this location. I will never understand what posesses people to do such a thing to such a beautiful creature. It is very frustrating that little can be done about it authority wise either :( Thank you for docummenting it.
ReplyDeleteGreg, there is no better person than you to catch these idiots in the act with that camera of yours - good luck!
ReplyDeleteI like this type of post.Thanks for sharing.I will wait for next post.
ReplyDeleteReally nice post thanks for posting that stuff. I like that kind of amazing and useful posts thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteA beautiful creature.
ReplyDeletehttp://grsshoes.com/