Cooks River At Botany Bay

So you ride all the way down the Cooks River cycle path. Past Cup and Saucer Creek Wetlands. Past Boat Harbour. Past Gough Whitlam Park and Wetlands. Past Landing Lights Wetlands. And here you are. The Mouth of The Cooks River at Botany Bay. To the north there's Sydney Airport and Port Botany with its bulk petroleum and container terminals. To the south there's the long six kilometre stretch of Lady Robinsons Beach and residential suburbs all the way to The Georges River. You can ride along a cycle path all that way, and stop to swim at any of the seven tidal baths with their shark nets, if you want to. Just around the corner from the mouth is Kyeemagh Baths where I sometimes stop for a dip. You can usually spot a few Bar-Tailed Godwits on the beach here in the season. Otherwise it's gulls and terns, gulls and terns.

Port Botany terminals and Sydney Airport in the distance

No Bar-tailed Godwits today

Gough Whitlam Park Saltmarsh

Not far away from the billabong is another example of restored saltmarsh. It was constructed about 10 years ago. The saltmarsh is designed to be inundated at high tide, although it has since been realised that some areas were not excavated to a sufficent depth. This sensitive environment is important as habitat to crabs and molluscs and some fish.

I sometimes do a bit of weeding or mulching or planting here as part of a volunteer project run by Canterbury Council. Quite a few of The Mudcrabs come to work on this project. Areas such as this and the other restoration projects are vitally important to the rivers's returning health.

The restored saltmarsh

A rationale for replacing seawalls with natural riverine banks

Gough Whitlam Park

So there's this little patch of restored native riverine forest by a "billabong" along the Cooks River. It's just off the bike path, and close to the kids' playground at Gough Whitlam Park. There's a cafe across a wooden bridge where you can take your KeepCup and get a discount on your coffee. And there's a wooden picnic table and bench where I sit to sip my long black, and where I like to keep my eyes open for birds.

A female Leaden Flycatcher looks nothing like a male. The female has a reddish throat and breast above a white belly and beneath a blue-grey cap. The male however has a completely blue-grey upper body, and a noticeable crest. I saw my first female in this tiny bit of scrub, and had to look it up in the books. An immature male Golden Whistler looks nothing like a mature male. I first saw one here, and had to look that up as well. An immature Spangled Drongo lacks the red eyes and the iridescent spots of the mature bird. Yep, you guessed it.

It's hard to describe just how small the patch I'm talking about really is. Not much bigger than your backyard probably. Though it's close to a long stretch of restored river bank vegetation and to mangroves, I'm still amazed at all the birds I've seen here while I'm sitting relaxing with coffee. It gives me just that little boost of confidence that, if we restore more of the Cooks River environment, biodiversity will increase. And, of course, if that happens, there'll be different birds for me to look up in my old bird books.

Cooks River bike path with the bridge over the tidal inlet to the billabong.

I have seen such a variety of birds in this small patch of restored scrub.

View from my picnic table.

The billabong at low tide. Lots of crabs in the mangroves. Striated Mangrove Herons have nested here.

Landing Lights Wetlands

I love watching waders. Okay, shorebirds if you must, I understand what you mean, but I'm quaintly old fashioned about what they're called. So I love watching waders. Actually, I love watching waterbirds too. But, ah those waders! They're something special. If truth be told, I'm absolutely hopeless at identifying them, but I could watch them all day.

Although we have plenty of resident waders to get excited about in Australia, there's an extra special buzz about the migratory birds who arrive here each spring and leave us again each autumn. Birds that spend our winter months breeding in China, Mongolia, Siberia, Japan and Alaska. It's just astounding to think about the distances these birds fly twice a year. So it's incredibly sad to know that many migratory wader species are experiencing long term decline. For example, the Eastern Curlew and the Curlew Sandpiper are now on the critically endangered list. Habitat loss seems to be the crucial factor, with the most pressing concerns being the huge losses of tidal flats along the seaboards of the Yellow Sea. Best not to be complacent about Australia though. Here wetlands have historically been bulldozed for developments such as marinas, resorts and even rubbish dumps. It's been estimated that, in New South Wales, 60% of all wetlands have been destroyed or degraded in the last 200 years (http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/wetlands/ThreatsToWetlands.htm). Sydney, as Australia's largest city, has seen enormous impacts on its wetlands. Even where wetlands remain, there are issues of modification, pollution and exotic species invasion.

I will breath a slight sigh of relief and report that some wetlands remain and are being restored, while others are being created. Along The Cooks River, Cup and Saucer Creek Wetland is an example of the latter, while Landing Lights Wetland is an example of the former. Landing Lights? Well, I can't swear to it, but it's probably named after the low-flying aircraft coming in to Sydney International Airport, which is about a kilometre away across The Cooks River. An alternative name is The Riverine Park Wetlands. Rockdale council has described the site as containing some of the last remaining saline wetlands in the area, and as being potential habitat for both migratory and resident Australian waders (https://www.rockdale.nsw.gov.au/environment/Pages/Environment_LLProject.aspx).

Landing Lights Wetlands

Some days I've seen lots of waders and waterbirds here. Dozens of Black-winged Stilts and Australian White Ibises. Plenty of White-faced Herons, Royal Spoonbills, Chestnut Teal, Grey Teal and Pacific Black Ducks.  I keep missing the visiting Curlew Sandpipers, Sharp-tailed Sandpipers and Bar-tailed Godwits (though I often see the latter not far downstream at the mouth of The Cooks River on Kyeemagh Beach). On the day I took the photos, there were no birds in the water at all, but there were ten or more Superb Fairy Wrens flitting around the scrub around the pools.

Guide to some of the birds seen (and not seen, at least by me) at the wetlands

It's really sad to read then, that this small wetland is now under threat from developers (http://savestgeorge.org.au/bartonpark/).

Cup and Saucer Creek Wetland

It's all good, isn't it? River bank restoration? Of course it's all good. Any sort of bank naturalisation along The Cooks River. Any improvement in biodiversity. Any increase in habitat. Any opportunity to watch more birds. Any opportunity to act like an anorak, and count, identify, count those feathered things. So Cup and Saucer Creek Wetland gets a big tick from me. It's got all the above.

Cup and Saucer Creek Wetland

Cup and Saucer Creek is one of the tributaries of The Cooks River. About eighty years ago, the natural banks of the creek were replaced with concrete, and it became one more stormwater drain. Then, as part of Sydney Water's bank naturalisation project, water was diverted from the concrete channel close to its confluence with the river, and fed into a newly made wetland. The water flows by gravity through a series of ponds, until it rejoins the Cooks River. Sediments and pollutants are removed during this flow, leaving the water far cleaner than it would otherwise have been, and reducing the impact on the health of the river.

Cup and Saucer Creek in its concrete channel

Providing a far better explanation than I could ever hope to

One of the ponds into which the water is diverted

The surrounds of the wetland were planted with locally native plant species, restoring some of the biodiversity that has been lost over the years. Of course this means habitat for native birds, and fun times for birdos. Water birds seen at the wetlands include: Australian White Ibises, White-faced Herons, Pacific Black Ducks, Chestnut Teals, Dusky Moorhens and Purple Swamphens. Other birds spotted here include: Welcome Swallows, Sulphur-crested Cockatoos, Rainbow Lorikeets and our angry old friends, the Noisy Miners.

A shameless Purple Swamphen parades before the camera

Australian White Ibises looking coy by comparison

The banks of The Cooks River at its confluence with Cup and Saucer Creek is one of four or more locations where local councils and Sydney Water have recreated or restored saltmarsh. The vegetation and habitat surrounding the wetlands and the adjacent saltmarsh are cared for by local volunteer group the Mudcrabs.

Alexandria Canal bank rehabilitation

Another Sydney water project along The Cooks River, is the restoration of the banks along the Alexandria Canal. Formerly a tributary of the Cooks (Sheas Creek), the canal has been described as one of the most polluted waterways in the southern hemisphere. The project has stabilised the degraded stone walls of the canal, by replacing sandstone but also constructing 'block pools' cut into and between the sandstone blocks, thereby creating habitat for intertidal plants and animals. One of the restored sections is at Tempe Reserve, where I join others for a monthly bird survey. The Reserve is, itself, a restoration project, whereby a former rubbish tip was turned into sports fields, native plant gardens, a saltmarsh and restored bushland.

Section of the Alexandria Canal Bank restoration (note the block pools) 

(you may also notice the Silver Gull looking for picnics to raid)

Some information about the project and its effect on the biodiversity of the canal

Boat Harbour, Cooks River

Where are the boats? Long gone now. This small harbour was built for the Sea Scouts' use in the 1960s, but quickly silted up and was abandoned. When I first started biking up and down the Cooks River Cycleway, you'd see plenty of fishers on the harbour arms, eagerly awaiting their toxic catch. Waterbirds would congregate on those arms too, but move off quickly as the fishing folk arrived. The displaced waterbirds would settle on the floating litter boom, which quickly became crowded. Then somebody in Canterbury Council had a very good idea. Fence off one of the arms to create a Waterbird Sanctuary. Great for the birds, but what about the fishing fraternity? Well, those fishers with a death wish could still reel in their polluted tiddlers from the other arm. And that's exactly what happened. The sanctuary went ahead. Result? A great spot for counting waterbirds. Some on the boom, some on the fenced off harbour arm, and, at low tide, some patrolling the mudflats.

Great Egret on the harbour arm

Start counting. Not just thirty-three Little Black Cormorants (think Beggars Banquet) this time, but plenty of Australian Pelicans, Great Cormorants, Pied Cormorants, Little Pied Cormorants, White-faced Herons, Great Egrets, Little Egrets, Masked Lapwings, Dusky Moorhens, Eurasian Coots, Purple Swamphens, Pacific Black Ducks, Chestnut Teal and more.

Australian Pelican and Great Cormorant on the litter boom

Australian White Ibis just beyond the fence boundary of the Water Bird Sanctuary

White-faced Heron and Magpielark on the Water Bird Sanctuary fence

Masked Lapwings inside the Sanctuary

Little Pied Cormorant

Litter boom holding back as much of the plastic tide as it can