A keen group of bird enthusiasts and curious community members recently joined specialists from Peel-Harvey Catchment Council, BirdLife Australia and the Mandurah Bird Observers Group at the beautiful Lake Yalgorup to discover more about this diverse wetland and its migratory and resident bird populations.
Thirteen people from the local community were lucky enough to share an early morning “Walk and Talk” at Lake Yalgorup led by Golo Maurer from BirdLife Australia along with Bill Russell and Bob Patterson from the Mandurah Bird Observers Group.
This was a great chance for the group to spend a couple of hours bird-watching and enjoy a morning tea information session about the value of bird-watching survey data and how it will help Birdlife gain insight and protect Australia’s bird species.
The 26,500 hectare wetland system, including Lake Yalgorup, is a designated wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention and is renowned as the largest and most diverse estuarine system in southern WA.
Beginning the Bird Walk and Talk at Martins Tank campsite, the group braved wet weather to explore the bushland around Lake Yalgorup and spotted twelve different species of birds.
During the morning tea information session, Golo demonstrated how to complete a bird survey using the innovative citizen science App, Birdata.
Birdata is a gateway to BirdLife Australia data where users can draw bird distribution maps, generate bird lists for any part of the country and also submit survey information to this important environmental database.
If you’re interested in learning about birds and how to bird-watch, please register your interest by emailing admin@peel-harvey.org.au
