Diverse Ecosytem – Fauna at Provest Creek

As part of our grant we wanted to measure the fauna active at Provest Creek. We engaged the services of Cumberland Plain Regeneration to help us. They placed camera traps, took samples of leaf litter and also did a spotlight survey and multiple bird surveys. They revealed a rich ecosystem active on the edge of the Berowra Valley National Park.

The full list of fauna they have identified so far are:

• Wallabia  bicolor – Swamp Wallaby
• Pseudocheirus peregrinus  – Ring-tail possum –  appears to be feeding on Pyracantha sp. weedy woody tree (garden escapee, bird distributed).
• Pteropus poliocephalus – Grey-headed Flying Fox feeding on Small-leafed Privet.
• *Chelodina longicollis – Common Snake-necked Turtle
• *Pseudechis porphyriacus – Red-bellied Black Snake
• *Tachyglossus aculeatus – Short-beaked Echidna
• *Intellagama lesueurii lesueurii– Eastern Water Dragon
• Vulpes vulpes – Fox
• Crinia signifera – Common Eastern Froglet near creek.
• Litoria fallax – Sedge Frog near creek.
• *Litoria phyllochroa – Green Stream frog
• Pseudophryne australis – Red-crowned Toadlet. Many tadpoles in a slight run off pool quite far from the creek, in the sandstone boulder area above the creek on the walking track!
• A chunky Euastacus spinifer – Giant Spiny Crayfish near the large pool.
• Oxycanus halmatus – Southern Oxycanus moth.
• Damselfly and Dragonfly larvae
• Physella acuta – Water snails (introduced from North America)
• Hirudinea genus – leech
• Eristalinus genus – Native drone fly kind of looks like a bee (but not).
• Elateridae family –  Click beetle

*Identified by Wild Habitats Inc.

The bird surveys revealed the following: