Manly Dam Biodiversity Project's Journal

Hi All,

News from the project where our observers are going great! I encourage you to login on the desktop site every now and again (iNaturalist.org) to have a look at the amazing range of observations in the Manly Dam Bio Project. My current favorites are the drosera genera or sundews as they are commonly known - small carnivorous plants which lure capture and digest insects. There are 90 species worldwide with 54 found is Australia. At the Dam we have 2 species recorded; Drosera spatulata and Drosera peltata.

Some stats: the project has collected 1402 observations and 473 different species. How about that for biodiversity in this special patch of urban bushland.

Keep Manly Dam Wild Campaign: this is a new campaign run by Save Manly Dam Catchment Committee to raise awareness and put a stop to developers encroaching into the park; you’d be surprised how much they are allowed to chip away at the bushland:
Hop on to the Save Manly Dam Bushland Facebook site to join the campaign and add a cute bumper sticker - you might recognise the logo; the very same Eastern Pygmy Possum image we use for our project.

Keep on observing and enjoy this beautiful autumn sunshine!

I’ve just enjoyed a beautiful morning walk through the Dam bushland. My friend Leicia and I found many of the Hakea gibbosas in flower, plants I’m not usually overly fond of but with lots of new growth and their rather charming axial flowers and hairy leaves I’ll certainly be paying more attention to them. I’ve added a few onto the project. The Banksias have had a bumper flowering season with so many Banksia ericfolia and spinulosa around. Great news for all the small mammals, particularly our Eastern Pygmy Possums, possums in general and Flying foxes.
There have been lots of new plantings at the Mermaid Pools bush regeneration site. We have planted out Croweas, Hibbertia, Lambertia formosa (Mountain Devil) and even some Flannel flowers. It’s the perfect time to plant with the cooler weather allowing the tube stock time to establish before the heat of spring and summer hit. We’re aiming to improve the biodiversity at Mermaid Pools, it has been highly disturbed over many years and an awful lot of work has been put into the area by the community to clean it up and control the weeds. It’s a beautiful spot already but according to historical botanical records it is only a fraction of what it once was. If you head down to have a look please take care where you step and stick to the paths, most have protection but not all.
Enjoy the cooler months ahead.