Category: nature and travel

Indonesia, 2024 (#4 in teaser series: seascapes, near Halmahera)

Published November 4, 2024 by Pelidoug

Indonesia, 2024 (#4 in teaser series: seascapes, near Halmahera)

Only India, China and the United States are home to more humans than is Indonesia.

The north easternmost islands of the Indonesian archipelago – those east of Sulawesi – are huge in number, but most are small isles and islets…”invisible” on most maps.

Collectively, they account for a miniscule portion of Indonesia’s human population, which now exceeds 283 million.

The islands and waters of North Maluku, Maluku, and Raja Ampat are extraordinarily biodiverse, species-rich, and scenically splendid; this is a region of rainforests, reefs, karsts, astonishing marine life, birds of paradise, incredible cloudscapes…and surprisingly few humans.

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Indonesia, 2024 (#3 in teaser series: Tidore Island)

Published November 4, 2024 by Pelidoug

Indonesia, 2024 (#3 in teaser series: Tidore Island)

Just south of Ternate, Tidore Island is also just “a dot on the map”, and was likewise “built” by its volcano.

Ternate Island and Tidore Island were once the centres of two rival sultanates.

Tidore’s big volcano – Mt Kie Matubu – dominates this post’s photo, which I took from Ternate’s eastern (Ternate City) shore.

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Indonesia, 2024 (#2 in teaser series: active volcano, rainforest & lake)

Published November 3, 2024 by Pelidoug

Indonesia, 2024 (#2 in teaser series: active volcano, rainforest & lake)

On Ternate the third afternoon of October 2024 was very wet – a not unusual circumstance on an island where annual average rainfall comfortably exceeds 2,000 mm.

At 3.46 pm the rain was easing, as we stood on the rim of Tolire Lake.

We failed to see any of its resident crocodiles, but the view across the crater lake – and up to Mt Gamalama’s highest peak – was becoming progressively clearer.

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Indonesia, 2024 (#1 in teaser series: precious)

Published November 2, 2024 by Pelidoug

Indonesia, 2024 (#1 in teaser series: precious)

Our first primary destination was the quintessential “spice island”,

In eastern Indonesia’s North Maluku province, Ternate is small in area, but handsomely that province’s most populous island.

Its active volcano – Mt Gamalama, which rises 1,715 metres ASL – has long been Ternate’s key benefactor and destroyer.

The Maluku Islands are also known as “the Moluccas”, or “the Spice Islands”.

In pre-colonial times the Sultanate of Ternate was wealthy and powerful, thanks to it then having a global monopoly over a highly prized commodity.

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Wireless Hill – feathers & flower spikes (#3 of 3)

Published November 1, 2024 by Pelidoug

Wireless Hill – feathers & flower spikes (#3 of 3)

In appearance, Lichmera indistincta – the brown honeyeater – is a strong contender for an “undesirable” title: Australia’s most plain/drab/nondescript honeyeater.

This species’ song, however, is widely considered the finest of any Australian honeyeater’s; clear recordings of it are here. (the second grab is the better one)

The pictured brown honeyeaters are young individuals who dine on pollen & nectar from plants that naturally occur only in southwest Western Australia.

However, brown honeyeaters are highly adaptable; they live across parts of all mainland Australian states and territories, except Victoria;

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Wireless Hill – feathers & flower spikes (#2 of 3)

Published October 31, 2024 by Pelidoug

Wireless Hill – feathers & flower spikes (#2 of 3)

They are not at all closely related to Banksias, but so-called “grasstrees” – which are neither trees nor grasses – also sport spectacular “spikes”.

Each such spike is occasionally “clothed” with an enormous number of flowers.

A “grasstree” flower spike can soar two or more metres – sometimes straight-line vertically, sometimes contortedly.

All grasstrees are endemic to Australia; many species occur in very particular regions, but at least one kind naturally occurs in at least one of every Australian state or territory.

This post’s heroes are endemic to southwest WA.

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Wireless Hill – feathers & flower spikes (#1 of 3)

Published October 30, 2024 by Pelidoug

Wireless Hill – feathers & flower spikes (#1 of 3)

This little series celebrates a favourite place, as it was on Sunday, 27 October 2024 – our first fully-waking day after our return to home turf.

(coming soon to Pelican Yoga: a teaser-series devoted to two contrasting parts of Indonesia. One is very sparsely populated. The other is “our” planet’s most-populous large island )

”European” calendars suggest it is still springtime in Perth.

In fact, the world’s greatest substantial-city, entirely-natural springtime flower-show ended some weeks ago.

Here, however, some wonderful plants are in flower at any time of year…plants which naturally occur only in WA’s southwest.

This post’s hero is one of them.

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“Robbing” gravestones, adjacent to Hollywood.

Published October 29, 2024 by Pelidoug

“Robbing” gravestones, adjacent to Hollywood.

In 2024 Father’s Day fell on a Sunday, and its afternoon was cloudy, but fine and mild.

Unsurprisingly, those factors made for a busy day at Perth’s largest cemetery.

By late afternoon, many Karrakatta gravestones were adorned with fresh floral (and other) tokens of remembrance.

Many Australian ravens were visible, “visiting” those gravestones.

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“Father’s Day” 2024, in Hollywood (final in series-proper)

Published October 28, 2024 by Pelidoug

“Father’s Day” 2024, in Hollywood (final in series-proper)

Southwest WA’s black cockatoos are highly sociable and very intelligent.

They are intermittently LOUD, but rarely aggressive/disputatious.

Breeding pairs usually “bond” permanently, and both parents are remarkably attentive to their offspring.

When it comes to enjoying their food, very evidently – both the “capturing” and the consumption thereof – these birds have few peers.

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“Father’s Day” 2024, in Hollywood (#4 in series: dexterity & “beak-power”)

Published October 27, 2024 by Pelidoug

“Father’s Day” 2024, in Hollywood (#4 in series: dexterity & “beak-power”)

One of life’s recurrent pleasures in southwest WA is to watch how any member of the region’s three endemic species of black cockatoo “deals with” his or her food.

This involves hugely-varying amounts of “difficulty” or “effort”, depending on whatever is the currently-relevant “nut”, “spike”, “seed pod”, “cone”, or flower.

For Carnaby’s black cockatoos, Banksia are a staple food source.

Extracting Banksia seeds from a “cone” is equally a matter of precision and power.

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