Roost Party at Teal Pond

In June, an invitation to a permanent, safe sleepover site was sent to all waterbirds and turtles at Sydney Olympic Park. At Teal Pond an innovative floating roost was installed to provide a protected roost site. You can check it out too.

Where do waterbirds sleep?

When birds settle down to sleep, it’s called roosting, and the main thing they’re looking for when choosing a roost is safety. A roost is not a nest as nests are only for eggs and chicks. When the nesting season is over, nests are a mess that can attract parasites and predators. Urban waterbirds such as ducks, herons, coots, and moorhens face a familiar challenge every night. The disturbance caused by humans or predators such as dogs, foxes or cats dominate the search for a safe night roost. 

Teal Pond is a good example of an excellent pond that needed a little enhancement to make it better for waterbirds. As the pond is ringed by a footpath and with no water bound retreat, what was missing for aquatic species such as birds and turtles was a safe roost site.

A floating roost was installed into Teal Pond in late June. This roost was constructed by using plastic pipe to create a rectangular floating frame. The frame was then filled with 200mm thick floating buoyancy foam.

The whole structure was then wrapped in very thick geofabric to protect the materials from ultraviolet light. This also creates a surface that webbed and clawed feet could grasp. This 8 square meter structure was towed to the centre of Teal Pond and secured to the pond floor with three earth anchors. These anchors allow for vertical movement as the pond fills and dries out (and will therefore shift a little in the wind).