Natural splendour, real musics, wines, wordpower
Long before the arrival of humans – who have been part of “the local equation” for many thousands of years – fire was already a key element in Waychinicup’s ecology.
This post’s featured individual belongs to one of the serotinous plant species; their seeds are stored in hard capsules, which open after a fire.
A fire may well kill the individual, but the species is highly “fire tolerant”.
Probably, all or most of the Hakea species in Waychinicup are in fact fire-dependent.
Comments closedThe inlet – pictured above – is, of course, Waychinicup National Park’s signature feature.
“The amazing view across its exquisite inlet” is, however, just one of this superb park’s many notable aspects.
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West Cape Howe National Park includes Torbay Head, the West Australian mainland’s southernmost point.
Near Torbay Head, Shelley Beach is WA’s southernmost 2WD-accessible strand.
The hill above it is WA’s prime location for hang gliding/ parasailing.
Kangaroos like it there, too.
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The day was fine, definitely not stormy.
However, a decidedly brisk breeze had blown for a few hours, so the ocean had some oomph when it met Western Australia’s southern edge on the afternoon of February 7, 2022.
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Unlike Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day” – a deservedly celebrated, but much-misunderstood song – this post is 100% free of irony and angst.
The photo (copyright Doug Spencer) was taken at 1.54 pm on 15 March 2021.
The inlet’s shore is surely one of the more sublime picnic lunch spots, anywhere, and the inlet is just part of one of our favourite wild places.
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Lustful, too!
East of the Nullarbor Plain, when an Australian talks of “blue wrens”, chances are they are Superb Fairy-wrens, Malurus cyaneus.
Superb Fairy-wrens do not exist on the WA side of the Nullarbor.
There – at least in WA’s southern half – the (equally superb) blue wren in question is usually the Splendid Fairy-wren, Malurus splendens.
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Anyone who pays close attention to small birds surely cannot fail to marvel at their hyperactivity, their agility, and how radically and swiftly their appearance changes.
From one nanosecond to the next, the very same individual can appear remarkably different in shape, colour, size…and attitude.
All photos feature New Holland Honeyeaters attending the very same Grevillea, adjacent to the eastern wall of a house in Walpole, in Western Australia’s “Deep South”.
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This post is a teaser: each subject of its four photographs will soon be explored further, in its own particular post.
All photos copyright Doug Spencer, taken in February 2022.
The first two images were both taken just a few steps outside of the house in which we stayed in Walpole.
Above, feeding, (& probably pollinating the Grevillea) is a New Holland Honeyeater Phylidonyris novaehollandiae.
Immediately below, flaunting, is a male Splendid Fairy-wren Malurus splendens.
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“I think you’ll be amused by its impertinence”.
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Australia has six black cockatoo species.
All are intelligent, sociable, spectacularly agile, and have very powerful beaks.
The world’s only two white-tailed black cockatoo species – both endangered – are endemic to southwest Western Australia.
My beloved and I are lucky enough to see and hear one of them – Carnaby’s Black Cockatoo – on hundreds of occasions, every year.
The featured image shows behaviour which is very familiar to us.
The other photos show something “new”, at least to us.
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