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