Natural splendour, real musics, wines, wordpower
Q #1: what is the pictured jellyfish-like fragment from a (presumably) recently-deceased marine creature?
A: I do not know.
Q #2: upon what has it “washed up”, in very shallow water?
A: sand, obviously.
(on Lights Beach, at eastern end of William Bay National Park, on Western Australia’s south coast)
Bigger question: what is sand, exactly?
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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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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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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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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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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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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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There is the small matter of nothing but blue skies being a recipe for the end of all life on “our” planet.
Supplying water is, however, not clouds’ only good quality.
If you wish to photograph birds, trees or flowers – most especially if you are using a digital camera, and there is no “screen” of vegetation immediately behind them – intense, unshaded sunlight is not your “dreams come true”.
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Caladenia latifolia – generally known as “pink fairy orchids”, or simply “pink fairies” – are not endemic to southwest Western Australia.
They also naturally occur in other southern Australian places, including Tasmania.
In my (totally “unscientific”) experience, as someone who has lived on both sides of the Nullarbor, they appear to be much more “common”/easily-seen in southwest WA than anywhere else I have been.
The pictured ones were among more than a few that were flowering in Hollywood Reserve on 01.09.2024.
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In January 2022 parts of Hollywood were devastated by a very fierce (i.e. hot) fire.
You didn’t hear about it?
My beloved and I have visited Hollywood many times, but the only bit of Los Angeles that we have directly “enjoyed” is its godawful airport.
We harbour no desire to set foot in the famous/infamous Hollywood, but are very fond of the petite, not-famous Hollywood Reserve.
This choice patch of inner-urban bushland sits “right next door” to one of Australia’s major cemeteries.
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