Royal Park West and Trin Warren Tam-boore

The Escarpment on a foggy morning.
Today Friends of Royal Park held the 5th of their bi-monthly bird surveys of the Trin Warren Tam-boore area. The wetlands are around three years old and were installed as part of the 2006 Commonwealth Games Village. Since then they have become well established and support an increasing diversity of bird species.
Today the wetlands were slightly below capacity with some mudflats exposed, as we stated off an Australian Hobby flew overhead. At the Treatment Pond our first surprise for the day was a Great Egret standing knee deep in the pond, the first time this species has been recorded on our surveys. As we walked around the pond we recorded a number of water birds including Australasian Grebes, Purple Swamphen and Black Duck. Other smaller birds were present too, such as Superb Fairy-wren and White-plumed Honeyeater. Clamorous Reed Warblers had returned for the summer, we watched as a pair flew to and from their nest within the reeds. Little Grassbirds were calling but being as elusive as ever.
The next section of the walk took us through the 'Skink Habitat'. The White's Skink were once widespread in Melbourne but now only thrive in a few areas around Melbourne, they were 'rediscovered' some years ago during a clean up program of this area and may be the only long term viable population close to Melbourne. A small creek runs alongside this habitat, it's one of the best place to see little birds. Today we saw a pair of Spotted Pardalote and a New Holland Honeyeater, last week when I walked through this area Grey Fantails and Silvereyes were present, but there was no sign of them today.
As we walked up the bike path towards the 'Woodland Escarpment' area a Grey Butcherbird was chased into a dense bush by a Red Wattlebird. Red Wattlebird was the predominant species present on the escarpment today, but we also saw a small party of Superb Fairy-wren and heard a Grey-shrike Thrush and a Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo calling.
The last section of the walk took us to the Storage Pond, the water here is deeper and more open so the species present are often different from those on the Treatment Pond. Today we recorded our first pair of Grey Teal. The Hardhead ducks, not present all winter, had returned, we counted 8 of them. There were several Australasian Grebe on nests and best of all, another new record for our list, was the pair of Black Swans who now have a large nest floating on the water at the edge of the reed beds. Other birds present were Eurasian Coots, Dusky Moorhen, Black Ducks, Clamorous Reed-warblers and Little Grassbirds.
Our total species count for the day was 34.
Trin Warren Tam-boore
Information about Royal Park and Trin Warren Tam-boore can be found on the City of Melbourne website at http://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/info.cfm?top=25&pa=1273&pg=1300