Garguree Swampcare, under the guidance of the Gully Traditional Owners and Blue Mountains Council started habitat restoration of The Gully at Katoomba in 2011.
Volunteers gather one Sunday a month to weed, plant, clean up, chat and enjoy the feel, smell and sounds of nature.
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The immediate area of The Gully Lake (Catalina) was quite bare, so in 2019 Garguree Swampcare began to rehabilitate the western surround of the lake with plantings, mulch, log and rock habitat.
In conjunction with the start of this restoration, Garguree volunteers and keen birdwatchers, John French and Fiona Lumsden, started two hectare bird surveys of the lake area. The regular lake area species, Pacific Black Ducks, Australian Wood Ducks Sulphur Crested.
Cockatoos dominate, but it's hoped with the introduction of native habitat, shrubs, grasses and sedges, other birds - especially the smaller bush species, may be drawn to this iconic Blue Mountains site.
To date, the pair has completed 31 surveys and documented 52 species. The highlight of these observations so far was an unusual visitor, a Black-fronted Dotterel, a small type of plover, using the newly mulched area in November 2021.
Gauguree Swampcare meets on the 1st Sunday of the month at 9.30am.
For details to be on the email list, email Jane: jlanderson@bmcc.nsw.gov.au. Check out John's Youtube Video 'The Gully Katoomba' - A Virtual Birdwalk. Garguree Swampcare monitoring is part of the 'Protecting Our Places Environmental Trust Grant' process.
