Birds of Waurn Ponds Creek

An amateur count suggests that well over fifty different species of bird can be found in the Waurn Ponds Valley parkland during the course of a year.

I am beginning to have a modest collection of images of these, after one year of occasionally having my camera with me on my morning and afternoon strolls. There are a variety of glaring absentees from the list. We always hear when the cockatoos are around, also the Australian ravens but they have not yet been caught in a photo. Then there are the tiny characters who flit in and out of the reeds at high speed, defying all efforts to focus on them so far.

To meaningfully catalog any aspect of the biology of an environment requires at least one cycle of seasons. To take photographs adds a further level of complexity. It could be some time before this page contains anything near the full list.

An excellent site for helping to identify many of the birds to be found in the parkland bordering the creek is the ABC Science Unit Backyard Birdwatch site. For some further information try the Australian Museum Ornithology site. Some other Friends sites from this region also contain useful information regarding the habits of the local birds.