A group of COG members assembled at the Nelligen Caravan Park and set up tents and tarps near the mangroves. Camping in a tamed environment was a first for some, as was the sight of two White-headed Pigeons on the telegraph wires above the village phone-box. Early on Saturday morning we embarked in canoes for four hours’ very pleasant paddling up and down the Clyde River: close-up views of several Azure Kingfishers and a few sore arms were our reward. Later that afternoon, those with the strength for a second effort saw a Square-tailed Kite while others fished, swam or snatched a siesta.
After lunch, organiser Chris Bellamy showed us a small Bateman’s Bay secret: the boardwalk and wetlands of the Water Garden in a park near the southern Woolworth’s supermarket Charles Buerhis walk yielded two Great Egrets, a Sea Eagle, Rainbow Lorikeets and the usual friends. On the way through town I saw two Pied Oystercatchers soaring towards the bridge. That night we enjoyed a communal barbecue.
At 7.30 a.m. on the eighteenth we drove to the local marina to meet Eric Andrew, owner of the ‘Jean-Marie’; he regaled us with the WA election results and an enticing account of the variety of pelagic birds we might see. We climbed aboard and after trouble from a sluggish engine, set off in fine weather on our 40-kilometre journey to the continental shelf, fortified in several cases by anti-seasickness pills. Only one passenger was kind enough to feed the fish and the following birds something more colourful than the chopped shark liver tossed overboard by the crew. (I hear there is grumbling at the bay that the offal thrown into the sea to amuse eco-tourists is bringing the Bronze Whalers back in near the shoreline.)
The liver certainly attracted hordes of Shearwaters: Wedge-tailed, Short-tailed, Fluttering and Flesh-footed. Pomerine and Long-tailed Jaegers, a couple of Black-browed Albatrosses and a Great-winged Petrel accompanied them. The more exotic birds did not materialise, the skipper explaining that April/May is the best time for albatrosses. Despite some disappointment, most of us landlubbers enjoyed our journey.
The indefatigable Chris Bellamy planned and led the Nelligen excursion with foresight, efficiency and good humour. He put in many hours arranging this adventure and all of us are grateful especially as, in the end, he had to miss the pelagic trip himself.
Suzanne Edgar