The sign says Gilmore Reserve, Melways say Gilmour Park. It is both.
Interesting reading.
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.
Practice makes perfect.
Gilmour Reserve is the Melbourne Water Ferny Creek Retarding Basin.
Worth reading.
A shady walking path is on both sides of Ferny Creek before they reach the artificial lake.
Ferny Creek and the paths on both sides.
A feature along these paths is a series of nesting boxes in trees for local wildlife.
A great initiative.
The only birds seen along these paths were several noisy miners.
Sitting, sitting and up, up and away.
The banks of the creek are heavily vegetated with much flora, with grasses and fallen bark making nice photos.
Walking path and backlit grasses and bark.
Reaching the lake is a visual splendour. Half the lake is covered with reeds, providing a home for many birds.
Views of the lake and reeds.
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.
Many ducks were at home.
More ducks.
This one was diving for food.
A single dusky moorhen fossicked for food on the lake edge as did two plovers.
Dusky moorhen.
Feeding plovers.
The northern end of the lake has another shady walk and a tyre swing indicated that the local young ones enjoyed the area.
Path and swing.
Many walkers were enjoying the walking paths as were several dogs.
an easy walk or jog, passing some magnificent old trees.
It's an on leash dog area.
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.
Australian blackthorn, verbena and cyperus.
Three unidentified plants were seen and photographed, as were two stages of St. Peter's wort.
Unidentified plants.
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.
Caught in the act.
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.
