Sydney Harbour, Botanic Gardens, wall

These birds were happy to pose for a photo on the sea wall that protects the Royal Botanic Gardens from Sydney Harbour, otherwise known as Port Jackson. The birds are Masked Lapwings or Spur-winged Plovers, which are native to Australia.

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Hurstville Grove, Moore Reserve Wetland

The Moore Reserve Wetland is located in the southern suburb of Hurstville Grove. Moore Reserve was created in the 1960s by infilling with mud dredged from Oatley Bay. An artificial wetland was constructed in 2001 using natural processes to treat 95% of all stormwater run off from the 125-hectare catchment before it enters Oatley Bay.

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Botanic Gardens, flying foxes

The grey-headed and black flying-foxes, otherwise known as fruit bats, are common in the Royal Botanic Gardens. Flying foxes are nocturnal mammals that can be seen roosting in the trees in the middle of the day. The grey-headed flying foxes have the largest body size of all bats with a maximum wingspan of one metre. They like to eat the nectar and pollen of eucalypts and other native trees, such as paperbarks and banksias. They also like eating rainforest fruits, such as figs and lilly pilly berries. The colony is damaging rare trees here and there are now plans to relocate them at great cost.

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Botanic Gardens, pond

This pond is located beside the Oriental Garden, close to the Palm Grove Centre, in the Royal Botanic Gardens. There were quite a few flying foxes (or fruit bats) sleeping in the trees above.

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Alexandria, Sydney Park wetlands

Sydney Park is a large inner city recreational area in Alexandria. It features a number of ponds and wetlands that attract many animals and birds. This is a view (top) of the pond in the south-east corner of the park. A Little Black Cormorant, also known as a Shag, is seen here sunning its wings (bottom), while its mate enjoys the view from the boardwalk.

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Alexandria, Sydney Park ponds

Sydney Park, in the inner city suburb of Alexandria, is a former brickworks that has been transformed into 44 hectares of parkland. There have been a number of ponds and wetlands (left) recreated as they once were in this area, which attract many water birds and animals. The storm water retention pond, with a weir (right), stores rainwater for the connected wetland areas in the park.Click here to view all participants of Weekend Reflections

Botany, wetlands

Mill Pond is part of the wetlands in the eastern suburb of Botany. This view is from the bridge on Botany Road. By the 1850s the colony's streams became clogged and polluted, so the government turned to Botany to supply Sydney with water. From 1859 to 1886, water from the Botany Swamps was pumped to the city and surrounding suburbs. Over time, tanneries, wool scourers, fellmongers and boiling down works all drained the natural swamp. By 1869, the area was no longer considered to be a reliable source of water and the Nepean water scheme took over.

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Camperdown lake

Lake Northam is a small lake in Victoria Park, which is located in the inner city suburb of Camperdown. The clock towers and globes above the old Grace Brothers department store buildings (top) and the tower above Market City can be seen in the distance. We've had a lot of rain recently which has certainly made the parks and gardens a lot greener. You can see the difference between these photos which were taken on the weekend and the shot of the fountain (bottom) from a few weeks ago here.

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Rockdale, Bicentennial Park ponds

I was driving past Bicentennial Park at Rockdale last week and noticed that these algal blooms have covered a large proportion of the ponds here. The unusual green cover looks picturesque but I don't believe that it would be particularly good for the ponds and wildlife in the area.

Centennial Park, Bird Sanctuary

The ornate gate leading to the Bird Sanctuary at Centennial Park, in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs.

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Georges Hall, Lake Gillawarna

Lake Gillawarna sits in the Mirambeena Regional Park, in the southwestern suburb of Georges Hall. It's a popular spot for Australian White Ibis.

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Rockdale Bicentennial Park

A little blue bridge provides a walkway over the pond in Rockdale Bicentennial Park, which attracts many ducks. This recreation area was renamed in 1988 to celebrate Australia's bicentennial of European settlement.