Notley Late Easter Excursion: Waterways Around Perth Metro. Friday, 20th May 2022
On a still, mild, partly overcast morning, four club members and two visitors met for the Notley Late Easter Excursion, Day 5 at the Woodbridge Riverside Park.
We walked quite slowly upriver along the banks of the Swan towards the Reg Bond Reserve taking in the birdlife, which was prolific. (See page 2 for the list of 20 we saw and recorded)
The pelicans were seen flying in formation upriver, and one pair seemed to have claimed their fishing spot when we reached that section. There was no sign of the others, however.
– Image by Tanya Marwood
We crossed the artificially straightened Blackadder Creek and met two members of the Toodyay Naturalists who were conducting a regular bird survey.
A little further on, we saw some Scarlet Bracket Fungus (Pycnoporus coccineus) growing through cracks in a fallen log.
– Image by Tanya Marwood
There were many Flooded Gums (Eucalyptus rudis) and Salt She-oak (Casuarina obesa) by the river. A large Orb-weaver Spider sat high in her web in one of the gums close to the river.
At the Bernley Drive Billabong, nearing Reg Bond Reserve, we observed a large moth (Female Ghost or Swift Moth, Abantiades sp.) hanging in a shrub on the edge of the billabong.
– Image by Tanya Marwood
Several dragonflies passed too quickly to attempt identification. We did not spot any Oblong Turtles (Chelodina oblonga) in this ideal habitat despite scanning the billabong for them. The billabong is an ancient arm of the river that was cut off when the river changed course. It was inadvertently preserved by landowner Brian Morris in 1967 when he agreed to abandon plans to connect the billabong to the river so boats could be moored in it instead of selling land in what is now Reg Bond Reserve, where a public jetty was built.
Once we reached Reg Bond Reserve, we observed some Murdoch University personnel in waders near the riverbank, furling a net. One of the women indicated she is an honours student who is working on determining the diet of three species of fish: the Black Bream (Acanthopagrus butcheri), the Blue-spot Goby (Pseudogobius olorum) and Wallace’s Hardyhead (Leptatherina wallacei).
Tanya Marwood