Natural splendour, real musics, wines, wordpower
If “your” Dal Lake houseboat is in the quieter part of the lake, you almost certainly will “feel the serenity”…at times.
You will also, there, be able to appreciate what still is an intrinsically very beautiful location.
And, before or after breakfast, without having to move beyond “your” boat’s verandah or landing, you are very likely to enjoy nice encounters with local birdlife.
Leave a Comment
As we approached the Goolwa Barrage, I noticed an unlucky cormorant.
Courtesy of a careless human, the pictured bird probably had a very short future.
Comments closed
At 3.13 pm on 13 March 2024 we were on our way back to Goolwa.
At that moment – forty minutes shy of the Goolwa Barrage – I loved the pictured combination of avian “group kerfuffle”, the slightly comic grace of “the lone pelican”, and the “unruffled tranquility” of the birds in the background.
Comments closed
On the move: one black swan, three cormorants.
Unmoved: one egret.
Wise advice, in some circumstances: see/hear this post’s wonderful musical bonus!
Comments closed
Variously, resolutely calm or alarmed: many cormorants.
Cucumber-cool: one silver gull, one pelican.
Comments closed
I took the featured photo at 3pm on 13 March 2024.
it shows the largest number of birds I have ever seen at one moment on the Coorong – a place I have visited more than a few times, over more than six decades.
Comments closed
For any photographer, attempting to “capture” a bird in flight is always a challenge.
More often than not, one does not succeed.
One is grateful that digital images can be inspected, instantly and deleted, often.
Sometimes, one “captures” something additional to what one had intended…
Comments closed
A wider view reveals what the Coorong’s north lagoon looks like in “boom time”..and a future post’s even-wider view will really show just how prodigiously abundant was birdlife in autumn 2024.
(Photo ©️ Doug Spencer, taken at 12.55 pm on 13 March 2024 – less than one minute after the previous post’s featured image)
The Coorong has long been a very dynamic ecosystem – and a fragile one.
Three months after we witnessed such abundance in the north lagoon, the Coorong’s south lagoon suffered a huge fish kill; an estimated 200 stinking tonnes of dead fish were rotting.
Locals said it was the largest such event in more than forty years.
Comments closed
My photo shows how “surprisingly” lush the vegetation can be on some parts of the Younghusband Peninsula.
On 13 March 2024 pelican numbers were within “normal” range for this part of the Coorong’s north lagoon – in my experience, at least.
Spoonbills, however, were “off the scale” – I had never before seen so many, there.
Comments closed
This post’s photo was taken three minutes after the previous chapter’s featured image.
As you can see, at 12.40 pm on 13 March 2024, all cormorants near to “our” boat decided to take off.
The nearest pelicans and swans stayed put.
Comments closed
