Coorong Nature Tours with Keith Conlon
At this time of year some feathered little Coorong residents are putting on their Mad Hatter's. I'm late I'm late routine with a vital purpose.
Most of us need a nature tour guide to what's really going on in a wilderness like the Coorong and there's none more passionate than David Dadd.
David takes interstate and international birdwatchers; and any keen visitors, on his Coorong nature tours...through his own vast and delicate backyard.
He took me last year at about Easter time... just in time to bid farewell to some amazing international ambassadors for their 5 star summer house. They are red necked stints; darting, busy little shoreline feeders about the size of a sparrow.
They are feeding frantically to fatten up for their epic annual migration back to Siberia. After the northern hemisphere summer, they will return to the Coorong flats in September or October.
At Easter time, the Coorong sees plenty of people who come for a shack weekend; a little fishing, a lot of eating. David Dadd gets his visitors to focus on the bird life - who do a little fishing; and a lot of eating. With his help you soon note the custom made beaks and legs of dozens of waterbirds who share the lagoons.
An eighteen year stint on the Narrung Ferry between Lake Alezandrina and Lake Albert gave David the time to turn a passion into an encyclopedic knowledge of the local bird life.
And his local history and science and is distinction level too; at Parnka Point; the narrow middle of the Coorong, between its long lagoons, he shows guests the signs of human occupation; like an old cockle truck, and collapsed jetting landing and the site of an old hand pulled ferry that led to a farm on the sand dune side.
With the water levels down; he'll take them across the salt pan, over the dune peninsula and onto the wild awesome 90 mile beach.
As the day fades, he'll take you walking high on the sand hills for a final though for the day. He does it because he's close to it all; physically and spiritually. He wants us to take away a sense of understanding and caring The Coorong is a delicate, fragile wild place that needs our support and respect.
Coorong Nature Tours
C/O Post, Narrung 5259
Phone: 8574 0037Day tour bookings on demand.
Minimum of two people.
Ex. Meningie $110.00 per person.
Ex. Adelaide $160.00 per person.
