While I was in the SW, I made a fleeting visit to Nelson, which is only a few kilometres from the South Australian border. The tiny town lies at the mouth of the Glenelg River. With a resident population of fewer than 250, on this fine Sunday afternoon, the place was packed. There must have been … dozens … of people picnicking on the river bank, sunbathing on the beach or fishing.
Because my stay was so brief, I only had enough time to check out the estuary from the car park.
I spotted black swans, crested terns, pied oystercatchers, silver gulls, chestnut teal, a Caspian tern, something with dark legs and an unfeasibly long bill, which I took to be a black-tailed godwit, and a couple of little sandpipery birds that I have no idea about. A lone male musk duck was also hanging around, with his tail spread and his dewlap a-quiver.
Nelson is now on my list of places to revisit.
The gang on the island in the middle of the estuary
Saltmarsh on the Glenelg estuary
Ocean beach
