I’ve only just discovered Baigup Wetlands in Bayswater. A couple of weeks ago we went to Northam to photograph birds at Enright Park and  we crossed the weir and walked up the river to the Peel Terrace traffic bridge. There’s a bit of an island in the middle of the river that is used by a lot of birds and I happened to notice an Australian Spotted Crake (Porzana fluminea). I managed to get a photo but it needed a very heavy crop to get a tiny image of the bird. At the time I was delighted because I’d never seen one before let alone get a photo. But about a week after I’d become somewhat Spotted Crake obsessed and wanted a better photo. Northam was out of the question as I reckon even a 1200mm lens wouldn’t be long enough to fill the frame. So searched EBird looking for recent sightings and one place consistently turned up – Baigup Wetlands in Bayswater. Fast forward a few days and I was parking up at the rowing club just off Milne Street with visions of capture magnificent Spotted Crake photos.

 

As you walk along the Dual Use Path (DUP) through the wetlands you’d be thinking that this was what was here when settlers first arrived, yet the DUP was only put in in 1986 and the two lakes while seeming perfectly natural are in fact artificial and were created in 2000 and 2001. Hard to believe when you look at it. Since then it has become home to an amazing 112 species of birds. If you are to go and look for birds there slather yourself in insect repellant as the mosquitos there are rampant. I forgot and after a couple of hours loitering in the bushes by the lakes I was very anaemic and very itchy.

 

Did I see a Spotted Crake? No. So now I’m thinking of putting a x2 teleconverter on my Sigma 150-600mm and having another crack at Northam.