On Magpie Geese Poem by Francis Duggan

On the wetlands covered in water from the recent heavy rain
The magpie geese among other water birds back in Tower Hill again
By sky they do travel for many miles from places far and wide
To the wetlands in the coastal countryside
In coastal South West Victoria when the landscape is green
On shallow lakes and wetlands birds that are sometimes seen
With swans, swamp-hens, moorhens, coots, grebes and ducks the wetlands they do share
Though in South Western Victoria they are known to be rare
Black and white birds with half webbed feet, pink legs and bill and knob on head
There are huge flocks of them up north in Kakadu it is said
Of human kind magpie geese seem rather shy
The nearest i have got to them is thirty meters before they did fly
Birds of the wetlands and shallow lake
A resonant honking the only sound they do make.