Save the Beeliar Wetlands
It's Not Too Late to Stop ROE 8!
The Beeliar Wetlands walking group has reached the milestone of its first month. From the wonderful launch with Noel Morrison singing and telling us stories, we have been blessed with perfect blue sky weather every Sunday so far. The group has varied from 6 to 10 members with new people turning up every week.
One week we were alerted to the presence of the Rahjah Shellduck by a walking group member named Marilyn. The Rahjah Shellduck is a visitor from Northern Australia. It is white and black with a pale pink beak which stood out amongst our local brown and black ducks. It remains a mystery as to how and why the duck is so far from home.
Last Sunday four new people showed up, one of whom was a visitor from Sweden who had read about the walk in the newspaper. All four new walkers were deeply concerned about the impact of the proposed ROE 8 extension and took postcards to sign.
We wandered towards Hope Road and up around Bibra Lake to visit the bird hides. We saw a couple of Birds of Prey (whistling Kites?) but were not sure of the exact ID. Saw lots of small fan tails, welcome swallows, honey eaters, wattle birds and a Butcher bird. Our Swedish visitor was really happy to see all these birds and learn their names.
One of the other walkers commented how our skies are always talkative, from dawn to dusk there are different birds calling. She lamented that with the loss of bushland we are losing the soundscape of our skies.
On Saturday the 1st of May I was interviewed on radio 6pr about the Beeliar Wetlands Walking Group. The interviewer, Tony, was very interested in the Wetlands themselves and commented how he had ridden horses around there as a child. He was also very interested in the Noongar history of the area and had done his research by looking up the savebeeliarwetlands.com website!
The walking group is a really enjoyable way to spend a Sunday morning, walking with friendly people and sharing our love of the Beeliar Wetlands. Each time we walk we see different things and meet new people. I encourage everyone to come down and join us. It is an easy walk with minimum fitness levels required. We meet under the big tree near Maggie's Kitchen on Progress Drive at 9.30am every Sunday. Get fit and enjoy your wonderful wetland park!
Update 29-06-2010
Everything is changing at the lake right now, with water levels slowly rising and 1oo's of birds returning to feed at the lake. On Sunday we saw literally hundreds o black swans as well as many sacred ibis and ducks of different breeds.
On Sunday 11th of July Graham Armstrong from Friends of Cockburn Wetlands Education centre and Birds Australia will be joining the walking group to show us which bird is which and point out some of the interesting facts about our local and visiting birdlife. A walk not to be missed!
FREE sticker with every sign-up!