March 11, 2020

Lake Cooloongup Flora and Fauna Reserve

The reserve is part of the Rockingham Lakes Regional Park system. The park contains protected woodlands and wetlands. The park is home to countless birds and the Western Grey Kangaroo.

The day before our walk we decided to scout out the area in order to locate a gate access to the park. (Many of their reserves do not have parking lots but there usually are gates at the end of some residential streets.) When we got to the area beside the park, a kangaroo and her joey bounced out from in between the houses, bounced in front of our car, and then ran/bounced to the bush.

We found a place to park the vehicle and a gate to enter into the reserve.
 

At the start of our walk the air was filled with sounds of birds. 

We passed by very interesting looking shrubs and trees on both sides of the path.  A lot of the underbrush was tinder dry from the long hot summer and an unseasonably warm autumn.

There were a lot of kangaroo tracks on the path but we didn't get to see any kangaroos on our walk. 

We did see (and hear) currawongs, white cockatoos, pink and grey galah cockatoos, Australian ring neck parrots, rainbow lorikeets and pied magpies.  We walked to the train tracks (the commuter train from Perth to Mandurah runs through the park).  We were enjoying listening to the birds when a train came by and drowned out their songs.

On the way back to the car we met up with a couple of currawongs waiting for us on the corner of Timberlane Loop and Maplewood Place.

There will be a blog posted in May 2020 about the Australian birds we met and their songs.