Gilmour Reserve, Upper Ferntree Gully

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The sign says Gilmore Reserve, Melways say Gilmour Park. It is both.


Accessed from New Road your first sighting is a sports oval, whereon a gentleman and his two dogs were practising his golf. The dogs showed no interest in golf and later on, when passing I suggested to him the dogs should be trained to retrieve golf balls.


Gilmour Reserve is the Melbourne Water Ferny Creek Retarding Basin.


A shady walking path is on both sides of Ferny Creek before they reach the artificial lake.


A feature along these paths is a series of nesting boxes in trees for local wildlife.


The only birds seen along these paths were several noisy miners.


The banks of the creek are heavily vegetated with much flora, with grasses and fallen bark making nice photos.


Reaching the lake is a visual splendour. Half the lake is covered with reeds, providing a home for many birds.


On my visit one end was what I called mud flats adjacent to shallow water and the home of many ducks, both on the mud and in the water.






A single dusky moorhen fossicked for food on the lake edge as did two plovers.




The northern end of the lake has another shady walk and a tyre swing indicated that the local young ones enjoyed the area.


Many walkers were enjoying the walking paths as were several dogs.




Around the lake were many flowering plants. Several Australian blackthorn shrubs were in flower. The purple, lavender-looking, verbena genus plant and a cyperus genus plant of the sedge family were two others.


Three unidentified plants were seen and photographed, as were two stages of St. Peter's wort.




Moths and butterflies are frequently seen flittering among flowering plants, usually stopping at each flower for only a few seconds and folding their wings. I managed to catch two dawdlers with open wings.


This is an easy, short walk and a perfect location to introduce young ones to bush walks, water birds and the protection of our wildlife with nesting boxes.

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