Backyard Biodiversity with Juan

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Juan (extreme right) briefs the participants prior to a night walk

Visitors to Manly Dam can often be seen feeding wood ducks and swans (much against the advice of the authorities), yet interacting with native fauna in any form is always a pleasurable activity.

Given the presence of such amazing biodiversity at Manly Dam, we asked ourselves “Could we find a way for the community to understand it better?”. With that question in mind, the folks from the Manly Dam Biodiversity Project designed a program with Wildlife Expert Juan Foreroto acquaint the community with the immensely rich Biodiversity of Manly Dam, in a series of ongoing walks with the support of an Environment Grant by the Northern Beaches Council.

“The walk was fantastic, Juan is so knowledgeable and full of interesting facts.”

— Participant at the Backyard Biodiversity Walks.

Participants peering into the dam looking for water birds

Juan, set about the task of creating a series of walks - employing his knowledge of fauna surverys to design three kinds of walks to cater to different interactions

1. Day Walk which would focus primarily on Birds and the occasional reptiles with a stress on listening and undertsanding various calls of birds and what they denote

2. Night Walk which would focus on all nocturnal mammals, marsupials and the birds which are active at night.

3. Sensory walk for the visually impaired to have an experience in nature based on listening, touching / smelling different flora and an occasional taste.

The idea was to understand birds and mammals that we see often, but don’t think much about. To understand their calls and patterns and truly start to embrace and care for the environment we love taking walks, runs and swim in. Curious about our walks? Sign up for the next one and see below some of the incredible fauna that we saw on our walks.

“I really enjoyed it. Will encourage me to do more walks at night. Thanks a lot”

— Participant at a night walk.

Little Pied Cormorant (Microcarbo melanoleucos)

What do they eat? Little Pied Cormorants are avid fishers, a remarkably high portion of their diet is made up of fish, crabs, shrimps, and other crustaceans. They catch their prey by diving and swimming and are so agile that they can swim just as fast as the fish they are preying upon. (Source: Wikipedia)

Pacific Golden Orb Weaver (Trichonephila plumipes)

They build large, semi-permanent, and incredibly strong webs designed to catch flying insects like bees and wasps. Their web is quite sticky, while the structural bits which hold the web are not. (Source: iNaturalist)

Black Prince Cicada (Psaltoda plaga)

Why do we hear cicadas every few years? The cicada spends seven years underground in nymph form drinking sap from the roots of plants before emerging from the Ground as an adult. (Source: Wikipedia)

Little Pied Cormorant (Microcarbo melanoleucos)

Why do Cormorants perch with their wings spread out? It is because unlike other aquatic predators cormorants lack the dense, oil-coated, waterproof plumage that repels water. The "Sunbathing" Ritual is toget their waterlogged feathers, dry in the sun. (Source: Australian Museum)

Eurasian coot (Fulica atra)

Why do they have unusual feet? Eurasian coot feet are distinctly large and feature "lobate" (lobed) toes rather than traditional webbing. Each toe is edged with flexible, hinged flaps of skin. This brilliant evolutionary design allows the coot to seamlessly transition between swimming in the water and walking on complex terrain like mud or lily pads. (Source: Wikipedia)

Laughing Kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguineae)

Why does the Kookaburra laugh? The Laughing Kookaburra is not really laughing when it makes its familiar call. The cackle of the Laughing Kookaburra is actually a territorial call to warn other birds to stay away. Kookaburras live in tight-knit family groups. They often chorus together at dawn and dusk to strengthen social bonds and keep the family connected. (Source: Wikipedia)

Eastern Water Skink (Eulamprus quoyii)

Can they regrow their tails? A skink drops its tail when chased by a predator. This is a survival tactic, as predators often focus on the wriggling tail while the skink escapes. The tail will eventually regrow, but it costs the skink a lot of energy. (Source: Australian Museum)

Australian Water Dragon (Intellagama lesueurii)

The water dragons have remained virtually unchanged for over 20 million years, predating many of Australia's modern ecosystems. (Source: Wikipedia)

Australian King Parrot (Alisterus scapularis)

Male Australian King-Parrots are the only native Australian parrots where the adult male boasts a completely vibrant, scarlet-red head (Source: Australian Museum)

Juan conducted fauna surveys, designed the trails to maximise fauna observation and across the walks 48 people from our volunteers and the general community joined us to explore Manly Dam at a pace much slower than they would on their own. We received much feedback on the length of walks, logistics and even to “Consider having a quiet walk section where you ask group to be silent and listen” which we incorporated in subsequent walks and continue to do so.

Of all the walks we conducted the most special will be the one where we accompanied the members of the Northern Beaches Visually Impaired community on a sensory walk. This walk focused on listening rather than seeing with the idea of helping them connect to and learn about nature through sound. Together we listened for birds, learned to distinguish different species by their calls, and explored the meaning and purpose behind those calls.

“Was a lovely evening. Very informative.”

— Participant at the night walk

Come join us on a walk around Manly Dam, the next one is on Saturday 11th July, 2026.

All Images © Aditi Das Patnaik