{"id":166,"date":"2010-03-01T23:47:00","date_gmt":"2010-03-01T13:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pmacdonald.com.au\/dev\/?p=166"},"modified":"2011-11-17T12:16:26","modified_gmt":"2011-11-17T01:46:26","slug":"the-miracle-of-the-desert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/petermacdonaldphoto.com.au\/2010\/03\/the-miracle-of-the-desert\/","title":{"rendered":"The Miracle of the Desert."},"content":{"rendered":"

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Something pretty exciting is happening in the Outback of South Australia.<\/p>\n

There’s a vast inland sea building there. The most rains in a decade have drenched the Strzelecki and Simpson Deserts leaving huge areas awash with floodwaters which will fill Australia’s largest freshwater inland system, the Coongie Lakes.<\/p>\n

Most years these two deserts are beautiful but inhospitable places. However with rain, they transform into a natural wonderland.<\/p>\n

In the fast evaporating waters from the last flooding perhaps 10 to 15 years ago, millions of fish eggs lie in the burning sands.<\/p>\n

When the waters come these eggs hatch and a seething mass of fish fill the lakes.<\/p>\n

Somehow in nature’s mysterious way, birds from all over Australia and as far away as Russia began to arrive in legions, feasting on the vast schools of fish.

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I watched all this the last time it happened in 1999 and 2000, flying many times over the lake system.<\/p>\n

While the pictures are pretty average, shot one handed through the perspex of my aircraft window, they illustrate the extent of the waters.<\/p>\n


\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In this one, small islands in the lake system become the spawning ground for thousand of pelicans. They mate here and stay while their young grow strong – feeding all the while on the abundance of fish.<\/p>\n

The shot was taken almost at the end of the cycle so many of the birds have moved on.<\/p>\n

While it impossible to reach at the moment – in the months to come when the roads and tracks dry out, it will be something really worth seeing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Something pretty exciting is happening in the Outback of South Australia. There’s a vast inland sea building there. The most rains in a decade have drenched the Strzelecki and Simpson…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":2544,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[16,15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-166","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-coongie-lakes","8":"category-strzelecki-desert"},"yoast_head":"\nThe Miracle of the Desert. - Peter MacDonald Photo<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/petermacdonaldphoto.com.au\/2010\/03\/the-miracle-of-the-desert\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"webmaster\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/petermacdonaldphoto.com.au\/2010\/03\/the-miracle-of-the-desert\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/petermacdonaldphoto.com.au\/2010\/03\/the-miracle-of-the-desert\/\",\"name\":\"The Miracle of the Desert. - 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