White-faced Heron

Sadly today was the end of our short 3 day break and this afternoon it was back to reality. However we spent the morning at Goolwa, at the mouth of the Coorong wetlands and drove back home late this afternoon.

It was another day (morning) in Blip paradise when neither of us could get a click wrong with the shots we took. Over the last 3 days I estimated we have seen at least 30 different bird species. I love all birds but when it comes to Blip time, I do have a slight preference for the larger birds.

My choice today was a hard one, as we jointly got great shots of some different birds we have never blipped before. My final choice was this one, the White-faced Heron (Egretta novaehollandiae). It is a quite common bird - but so very attractive and the word elegant also comes to mind, whereas Pelicans are cumbersome! See him better in LARGE.

It lives in shallow water of all types, salt, fresh or brackish, which is why it loves the habitat around the Coorong. The White-faced Heron is mostly light blue-grey in colour, with a characteristic white face. It has a long, slim neck and a pointed grey-black bill. The legs are long, thin and pale yellow in colour. Great legs for wading, but definitely not the sort of legs to win at a bodybuilding competition!

Goolwa has so much to offer tourists who visit South Australia, but it tends to get forgotten as it is so close to the popular beach towns of Port Elliott, Middleton (for surfing) and Victor Harbor. But we love the lower reaches of the River Murray, and could happily have stayed there for several more days.

Today an historic agreement was signed into law by the Australian Federal Government to protect the River Murray water flow and its whole eco-system. This is fantastic news for our River Murray, Coorong in general, and the mouth of the Murray at Goolwa.