Natural splendour, real musics, wines, wordpower
Superb Fairy-wrens and Splendid Fairy-wrens both deserve their names.
The former – Malurus cyaneus, pictured above – is the “Blue-wren” most familiar to humans who reside in Australia’s southeast.
The latter – Malurus splendens – is the Blue-wren most commonly seen in Australia’s southwest.
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Recently, in a “to cull, to tweak, or to let it be?” mission, I waded through nearly 10,000 images.
I suddenly realised that most of my “single species” wildlife photos involve either a single animal, a pair, or a group/flock/herd of more than four individuals.
Three, I think, is the rarest single-species group size…or number of individuals a photographer can “isolate”, successfully.
This little celebration of “companies of three” will range over three continents and at least one island….
It begins in one of my favourite parts of the island continent.
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If the relevant timepiece registered only minutes and hours, it would have said “9. 23 am” through all of this post’s eight images, which are presented in chronological order.
As it happens, my camera also records seconds, so I know that only 39 of them elapsed from first to eighth photo.
From image “1” through “7” only 21 seconds passed.
A recently-bathed Superb Fairy Wren – Malurus cyaneus – can adopt a great many different positions within such a “short” time!
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This post’s actual footprints come from bears in Alaska, birds on the Indian subcontinent and continental Australia, a Tasmanian wombat, and humans in an African desert and Australian suburbia.
The musical bonus is courtesy of one of the greatest jazz musicians – equally so as composer, virtuoso instrumentalist and inspired improviser.
There’s also a metaphorical footnote which involves New Zealand’s largest farm…
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From a research article published this week in the British Ecological Society’s Journal of Applied Ecology:
Our results suggest that the enrichment of natural soundscapes using underwater speakers may provide an efficient solution for boosting early recruitment and habitat building by oysters.
However, caution the researchers, restoration practitioners must consider the potential for negative impacts from speaker enrichment.
A question for you, dear reader:
before you read the quoted words, had you ever contemplated oysters’ “hearing”, much less their response to sounds played through underwater speakers?
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This kookaburra, perched on a grave cross, has something in common with most of the humans who have been buried in Perth’s largest cemetery over the past 123 years.
In 2022, most living WA humans do not know what it is; most of them, in fact, have a quite wrong view of kookaburras’ “place” in southwestern Australia.
Comments closedTidal sand/mud-flats present very different “faces”, depending on when you happen to visit them – time of day, as much as time of year – and also on how closely you look.
Yesterday’s featured photo was taken in the same location as was today’s, their two vantage points were a very short walk apart, and only a few minutes separated their shutter-clicks.
Nothing much had changed in those few minutes, but…
Comments closedThere is nothing fake or “tricked up” about this post’s featured image, which was taken just a little north of the Australian continent’s southernmost point.
The photo is, however, a deeply “misleading” portrait of Shallow Inlet at low tide…
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This sequel to previous post is the fruit of summertime visits, pre-pandemic.
Warmer days offer their own particular photographic opportunities and challenges.
Heat haze and mirages can render some “long lens shots” utterly pointless.
However, they can be the making of others.
One CommentThe featured image and the one below were both taken from a boat on the Coorong-proper – Australia’s longest lagoon.
Both photos look across its waters to the Younghusband Peninsula – the dune field that separates the Coorong from the Southern Ocean.
Sand and water are the Coorong National Park’s key components.
The former arrives via wind, and Southern Ocean waves.
Most of the “fresh”-ish supply of the latter is delivered by the Murray-Darling river system.
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