Now who’s a galah?

At our May 2016 Dawn Road Reserve Bushcare working bee, volunteers were treated to a special encounter with a pair of delicately coloured birds who seemed quite interested in what we were doing but not at all put off by our presence. With their rose-pink head, neck and underbelly, a paler pink crest with a…

Bird survey

The Dawn Road Reserve is filled with birdlife and, led by Dawn Road Reserve Bushcare mentor Janet Mangan, a handful of volunteers combed the reserve for a couple of hours on Saturday morning, May 23, noting and sightings of birds in and around the bushland. From the outset at a point under the powerlines, we…

A pair of Australian wood ducks (Chenonetta jubata) forage on the recently cleared embankment in the Dawn Road Reserve, near the end of McConachie Court. The male is at the front, the female behind.

Australian wood duck

Australian Wood Ducks (Chenonetta jubata)– medium-sized ‘goose-like’ ducks with a dark brown head and a paler grey or brownish body, with two black stripes along the back – are frequent visitors to the Dawn Road Reserve. This pair (female at the rear, male in foreground) are scavenging along the recently cleared embankment just before revegetation began.…

Billie the sulphur-crested cockatoo taking a walk through suburbia at Albany Creek

Sulphur-crested cockatoo

Regular visitors in and around the Dawn Road Reserve are the rather noisy sulphur-crested cockatoos (Cacatua galerita). You’ll hear one squawk to its mate or offspring, or evens dozens of them calling to one another as their flock scans the horizon for likely sources of food. According to Birds in Backyards, the large, white sulphur-crested…