Coorong – Page 3 – Pelican Yoga

Coorong, autumn 2024 (#2 in series, long-nosed, sated)

Published August 25, 2024 by Pelidoug

Coorong, autumn 2024 (#2 in series, long-nosed, sated)

The European carp which infest and degrade the Murray-Darling River system are disdained by most Australian human eaters of fish.

For a seal at Goolwa, however, a carp is a “highly-desirable, easily-caught meal”.

The recent “flood years” have flushed and funnelled umpteen millions of European carp through the Goolwa Barrage’s opened gates.

If long-nosed fur seals could speak English, they’d probably describe the Goolwa Barrage’s current hunting and dining “scene” as akin to “shooting fish in a barrel”.

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Coorong, autumn 2024 (#1 in series: not a “kiwi”)

Published August 24, 2024 by Pelidoug

Coorong, autumn 2024 (#1 in series: not a “kiwi”)

As regular readers would already know, the Coorong is one of our favourite places.

This series is the fruit of our most recent visit, on 13 March 2024.

In the wake of the 2022-23 floods – which produced the Murray-Darling river system’s biggest flows in many years – the Coorong was enjoying better overall “”health” than had been the case over the preceding several decades.

Most tourist visitors enter the Coorong via the Goolwa Barrage, where this series begins.

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Summertimes, Coorong National Park

Published May 28, 2022 by Pelidoug

Summertimes, Coorong National Park

This sequel to previous post is the fruit of summertime visits, pre-pandemic.

Warmer days offer their own particular photographic opportunities and challenges.

Heat haze and mirages can render some “long lens shots” utterly pointless.

However, they can be the making of others.

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Coorong National Park (northern part, Autumn 2022)

Published May 25, 2022 by Pelidoug

Coorong National Park (northern part, Autumn 2022)

The featured image and the one below were both taken from a boat on the Coorong-proper – Australia’s longest lagoon.

Both photos look across its waters to the Younghusband Peninsula – the dune field that separates the Coorong from the Southern Ocean.

Sand and water are the Coorong National Park’s key components.

The former arrives via wind, and Southern Ocean waves.

Most of the “fresh”-ish supply of the latter is delivered by the Murray-Darling river system.

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Murray River meets Southern Ocean: little big mouth

Published May 22, 2022 by Pelidoug

Murray River meets Southern Ocean: little big mouth

The featured image’s Southern Ocean waves are breaking on the Younghusband Peninsula’s narrowest, northernmost section.

The peninsula’s tip is the southern “lip” of the mouth of Australia’s biggest river system; the cormorants are on the “freshwater side”, as was yours truly at 3.35 pm on 30 March 2022.

If you have never been to this spot, you may be thinking, “it looks splendidly wild, barely touched by humans”.

Alas, you would be very wrong….

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Fur seals: bad news for The Coorong?

Published May 18, 2022 by Pelidoug

Fur seals: bad news for The Coorong?

Over the last 15 years seals have become an increasingly common/obvious presence in the Coorong-proper and on/around the Goolwa Barrage.

This has delighted some people, but infuriated/worried some others.

Some of the infuriated/worried people perceive the seals as “intruders”, as “fish thieves”, as “out of control”, “a threat to fish and bird populations”.

So, who are these seals, are they “newcomers”, and are they a threat to “the natural balance”?

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Flight, Coorong National Park: gulls (with musical bonus)

Published May 10, 2022 by Pelidoug

Flight, Coorong National Park: gulls (with musical bonus)

When an Australian thinks of seagulls, the relevant species is almost certainly our most common, emblematic one.

Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae – the Silver gull – has prospered mightily, post-1788.

Arguably, this highly-adaptable bird should no longer be described as a “seagull”.

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Flight, Coorong National Park: Pelicans

Published May 8, 2022 by Pelidoug

Flight, Coorong National Park: Pelicans

One of the pleasures of Australian life is to look up and see pelicans “surfing the thermals”, soaring, spiralling ever-higher, with so very little apparent effort.

They are also wonderful to watch as they take off from water (or land on it); then, however, a great amount of effort is spectacularly evident.

Pelicans are one of “our” world’s largest, living, flying “machines”.

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Flight, Coorong National Park (teaser)

Published April 13, 2022 by Pelidoug

Flight, Coorong National Park (teaser)

Having just returned to WA, after three (mostly, offline) weeks in South Australia, Pelican Yoga today interrupts the ongoing “Aspects of Waychinicup” series.

This post foreshadows a two-part series; each chapter will celebrate a very different species, on the wing.

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Happy New Year (with myth-buster bonus)

Published December 31, 2020 by Pelidoug

Happy New Year (with myth-buster bonus)

According to what most people believe, this post’s flightless bird is a perfect symbol for “moving forward in 2021”.

After all, aren’t the emu and the kangaroo Australia’s heraldic beasts precisely because neither is capable of taking a backward step?

Self-styled “rational” adults delight in having long ago discovered the truth about Santa.

However, even many self-styled “scientists” still believe that emus cannot walk backwards.

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Tag: Coorong