Bernard Park

Newly mobile, I had such high hopes for this trip to Bernard Park in the Wheatbelt metropolis of Northam. I walked the dog through the park the day before and saw plenty of bird activity. Everything was checked and packed carefully the night before and the car had a full tank of petrol. What could go wrong? I pulled up in the carpark just after dawn and the conditions were looking perfect. I could see and hear plenty of birds. Then I found out what could go wrong. Me! I just couldn’t do anything right. It was as if I’d never picked up a camera before. Forty years of photographic knowledge and experience had evaporated. A lot of the birds got so bored sitting around waiting for me to get my act together that they took off in search of a better photographer. I missed lots of sitters because I was just so slow in sorting out focus, exposure and composition. After an hour and a half of abject failure I threw in the towel and called it a day.

I’ve put the two best photos below and they are quite frankly very, very pedestrian.

Three Little Birds. Kanamit or Welcome Swallows (Hirundo neoxxena). Bernard Park, Northam, Western Australia.

A female Choonya or Long-necked turtle aka oblong turtle (Chelodina oblonga) having laid its eggs slowly makes its way back to the safety of the river. Bernard park, Northam, Western Australia.

The only upside to the day was that I saw two of the Long-necked Turtles. It’s egg laying season for them and they come up from the river – no mean feet as the bank is very high and steep at this point – and lay their eggs. They will have hatched out at this spot and every year they will lay their eggs there. Their offspring will do the same. Thirty years ago I used to see turtles quite regularly, but now they are very rare so to see 2 within five minutes of each other was something rather special. This time of year sees the turtles try to cross busy roads to get to their nesting sites, so if you live in these areas please be careful as you drive. A word to the wise. If you ever feel the need to help one not get run over by picking it up and moving it to a safe location a word of caution. Make sure that the rear end is pointing away from your body. Long-necked Turtles void as a defence mechanism – it is an incredibly foul smelling mess that is very difficult to wash off yourself and out of your clothes. Once smelt never forgotten.

The issues regarding my blog that I spoke about a couple of weeks ago have not resolved. I still can’t link images from my account at 500px to my pages here at WordPress. I had extensive communications with both companies and each is blaming the other and I’m the meat in the sandwich. I hope in another couple of weeks to find a permanent solution.

Most people think ducks are quasi comical animals that are quite cute. This perception comes from being taken to feed the ducks at a local pond when we were small children and watching cartoons such as Donald Duck or Daffy Duck. Psychologist Richard Wiseman and colleagues at the University of Hertfordshire, UK, finished a year-long LaughLab experiment, concluding that of all animals, ducks attract the most humour and silliness; he said, “If you’re going to tell a joke involving an animal, make it a duck.” The word “duck” may have become an inherently funny word in many languages, possibly because ducks are seen as silly in their looks or behaviour. But ducks, particularly the males aka drakes have a very, very dark side.

In the duck world males, or drakes, outnumber females, or hens, by a considerable margin. This means that females can afford to be very choosey. Indeed, according to Yale ornithology Professor Richard O. Prum “For a male duck to land a female, he must boast colourful plumage plus have an elaborate dance mating ritual and beautiful mating calls. In other words, he needs to be a beauty, plus a great singer and dancer.” Unfortunately most drakes don’t make the grade. So what’s a terminally frustrated young drake going to do? Well they hang out with a bunch of other drakes and wait for a hen to get within range and then they gang rape her. According to Professor Prum “These are socially organised ‘gang rapes’ that are ‘violent, ugly, dangerous and even deadly’ and even sometimes end in the death of the female.”.

Eroodoo or Hardhead Duck aka White-eyed Duck (Aythya australis). Northam, Western Australia.

This was precisely the scenario that played out on my visit to Bernard Park the other day to photograph Australian Reed Warblers. In the swan enclosure at the eastern end of the park, there were a number of ducks. The first I saw was a Hardhead hen and her brood of ducklings calmly cruising and looking for food. There were also four Pacific Black Duck drakes milling around on the water. I didn’t pay much attention because they are ubiquitous on Australian waterways and I was there photographing Reed Warblers. Suddenly a huge commotion erupts when a hen Pacific Black Duck lands on the water. The drakes suddenly spring into action and give chase. All four proceed to rape her. It was incredibly violent and the poor hen was left barely able to drag herself to shore and hide under some bushes.

“Help! Help!” A female Ngowonan or Pacific Black Ducks (Anas superciliosa) being chased by a drake. Northam, Western australia.

paulamyes

This is the site for Australian visual journalist and writer Paul Amyes.

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