PELICANS AND FRIENDS

The Australian Pelican (pelicans conspicillatus - ngori) is a fascinating bird. With a wing spa of 2.3-2.5m, they take up huge sky space as they take off but when resting, as they tuck their head in, one doesn’t appreciate their extraodinary pink pouched bill. They feed on fish, crustaceans and frogs, scooping them up in their large flexible bills which can measure up to half a metre. I love the various collective names that have people have invented for birds and my favourite options for pelicans are a squadron or a scoop. There was such a grouping on a pier a couple of houses down from our rental on Hindmarsh Island and every so often one would come and fish near our jetty. My great disappointment was that I didn’t manage to get one of those glorious pink pouched bill fish-catching moments on camera. 

We did a tour on the Coorong and the array of water birds was extraordinary. More black swans than I ever seen. Pelicans where ever you turned. Herons and slits, grebes and terns, oystercatchers and gulls, darters and cormorants. Migratory birds from the Northern Hemisphere. The wonderfully names Bar-tailed God-wit visits the Coorong from Alaska. A recently tagged bird took 11 days to fly here. They just come for a feed, travelling non-stop, with half their brain sleeping as they fly. Of course, it all depends on the health of the Murray River. If the water is flowing well, the bird species and numbers would be affected but this year has been a good year (if one discounts the shocking algal bloom that has impacted on many of South Australia’s beaches). 

In order to prevent the salt ocean water seeping upstream, there are a number of barrages in this part of the Murray. They are used to regulate water flow and have mazes built into them to let fish flow in both directions. Some smart pelicans and fur seals have worked this out. The barrages become take-away restaurants for them as well as providing sun lounges for the seals. 

We toured the inland waterways but we also got off the boat near Barker’s Knoll and walked over the sand dunes of Younghusband Peninsula from the Murray to the sea via the remains of an indigenous midden, sheltered in a hollow from the Southern Ocean winds, which was also provide the perfect place for mosquitos to congregate. It’s the first time I’ve ever been grateful to see a woman in a black hijab. Usually, I’m the mosquito attractor but this time, they loved the black of her clothes and I spent more time waving them off her head scarf than listening to the presentation about local juniper and rosemary and white native currant (coastal beard-heath). Still, a few minutes later one walked up over the sand to the sea and breeze blew them all away.