Today we revisited the Coorong which we had last seen in February.
Last time we were here there was precious little water and very few birds.
This time it was quite different. At the Jacks Point Pelican Observatory, we saw many nesting birds with fully grown chicks on the islands which the birds use for their hatchery and which are now entirely protected from human disturbance. These islands are the location of Storm Boy, the award winning book and film from the 70s.
We discovered that the parent birds feed at the Goolwa Barrage, 75 kilometres (45 miles) from here making the journey to Goolwa largely in gliding mode having attained great altitude on the thermals and wave lift available here. We watched a flock of twenty or so birds until they were too high to see.
As it happens, we were watching pelican feeding in the outflow from the barrage at Goolwa only last Thursday and didn't realise then that the birds might well have come from here.