Tempe Wetlands 100th bird species sighting celebration Inner West Council will hold a morning tea at Tempe Wetlands to celebrate the 100th bird species sighting - and thank volunteer bird watching group, Tempe Birdos. Media are invited to attend. The land was a shale quarry in the 1920s and a greyhound track in the 1940s, before becoming the infamous ‘Tempe Tip’. The site was used as landfill for commercial, domestic and trade waste from around Sydney until the mid-1970s. In 2004, the then-Marrickville Council began work on remediation of the site. This included creating three sedimentation ponds for treating stormwater and planting a diverse range of species to create native wildlife havens. In January 2006, when the $17 million Tempe Lands remediation project was completed, the Mayor of Marrickville was quoted as saying that, “Birdlife that has not been seen in the area for some time is already starting to return to the wetlands.” By 2011, the remediation project was so successful, Tempe Lands was identified as one of seven Priority Biodiversity Areas. “In just 12 short years, Tempe Wetlands had been transformed from a rubbish tip to a thriving biodiversity area,” said Administrator of Inner West Council Richard Pearson. The volunteer bird watching group, Tempe Birdos, was formed in November 2011 and since then has met monthly for an early morning bird walk and survey at the Tempe site. At the most recent survey, in August, Tempe Birdos recorded their 100th species – a Little Egret. The groups has also recorded a growing number of frog species, as well as an Echidna sighting, Blue-tongued lizards, water skinks, eels, flying foxes, a fox and the occasional goldfish. “This shows that it’s never too late to regenerate neglected or polluted areas,” said Mr Pearson. “Tempe Wetlands has become a fantastic example of how bush regeneration can bring back an amazing array of species to the inner city.” The morning tea will be held at the Wetlands on Saturday 10 September from 9.30am
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