Natural splendour, real musics, wines, wordpower
You may be less than surprised to know that this post’s image is not the photo that I had envisaged/intended!
Once a bird is airborne, one fiftieth of one second can prove a surprisingly long time – long enough to transition from “look at that bird!” to “nothing to see but sky”.
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As you can see, the head of the male of this subspecies is – beak excepted – a study in “basic black”.
And, as you will see in following posts, even if the flash of an individual’s tail – or part of his/her chest – is all you can see, it is very easy to identify an adult red-tail’s gender.
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This post’s photo was taken just one lane away from yesterday’s featured image.
As was also true yesterday, the individual you are looking at is definitely a female Forest-red-tailed black cockatoo.
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Pictured above is a small part of an artwork which occupies the entire lane-facing side on one West Leederville residence’s back fence.
It is a lovely, loving salute to/depiction of Calyptorhynchus banksii naso – the Forest red-tailed black cockatoo.
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Many birds can swivel their heads across a much greater arc than we humans can.
This is good news for bird photographers; a “from behind” image does not always lack the relevant bird’s watchful gaze…
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Long before Europeans reached Australia, what is now “Perth’s Pelican Point” was already a place of considerable significance to both humans and birds.
Given its inner urban location – as a bird flies, a couple of minutes or less from the CBD of a metropolis – it is no small achievement that the bipeds who effectively “own” Pelican Point’s actual point are avian, not human.
In the featured image: white-headed stilts, black swans, and a little pied cormorant.
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As you can see, on 18 April 2023, Perth and its big estuary – the Swan River – were bathed in bright sunlight.
It was a perfect day to enjoy good things which are not so readily available – all, within just part of a single day – to most urban humans.
Where else would convenient, uncommonly cheap public transport (free, to “seniors”, outside “rush” hours) deliver you to one of Australia’s better pub lunches, after which the nearby riverside presents you with kilometres of glorious, publicly-accessible, uncrowded foreshore?
Even if you simply zip down to-fro the nearby jetty, you will enjoy a splendid vista and – almost certainly – a close encounter of the pelican kind.
And if you bother to walk along the foreshore….
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Pictured above is one of several “flying saucers”.
Apparently, all were abandoned, shortly after landing.
They were recently discovered and photographed by Pelican Yoga’s Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence Unit.
If you believe this – let alone the endlessly-repeated but false claim that Perth is the world’s most isolated city/capital city/ substantial city – please discuss further with Father Christmas, the Easter Bunny, Donald Trump, and the Tasmanian Tiger of your choice…
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The birds pictured above were formerly known as “pied stilts”, and considered an Australasian subspecies of Himantopus himantopus, “yesterday’s heroes” – see #10 in this series.
This post’s heroes are now generally considered members of their own species, Himantopus leucocephalus.
Their “preferred” common name: white-headed stilts.
Each of these three individuals has the full complement of two legs.
Stilts, however, often prefer to stand on one leg, with the other one neatly folded and tucked into their lower feathers.
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Natalie and Walt have just unwittingly delayed the promised leopard post!
(it will be the next one, I promise)
The photo alludes to one of my favourite Walt Whitman poems, from Leaves of Grass.
Most printed interviews with musicians are time-wasting, publicist-driven piffle.
A notable exception is The New Yorker interview, published today – worth reading, whether or not you admire/know Natalie Merchant’s singing/songs.
There aren’t a lot of people writing love songs to Walt Whitman.
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