Skip to content →

Tag: Northern Territory

Quirky moments (#13 in series: tool-using Australian buzzard)

 

 

Until Charles Darwin observed finches at work in the Galapagos, many members of our own species had believed that tool-usage was a uniquely human ability/trait.

The known list of non-human tool-users is now enormous.

It includes many mammals (not only primates), birds, fish, cephalods, reptiles, and insects.

One of them is an Australian raptor which deploys rocks to crack emu eggs.

You may be surprised to know that the pictured individual did not learn the technique from his or her parents, nor did this captive bird’s human “keepers” train him or her to do it.

One Comment

Glen Helen Gorge (#26 in SA/NT “outback” single image teaser series)

 

Glen Helen Gorge is in the Western MacDonnell Ranges, 132 kilometres west of Alice Springs.

It was carved by the Finke, allegedly the world’s oldest river.

Glen Helen is one of not many Central Australian places where water is “permanently” visible, reflecting the sky.

If you are looking for particularly beautiful examples of “water in landscape” – whether an entirely natural landscape, or a man-made/manicured/ garden setting – you will likely enjoy a higher success rate in regions with dry rather than wet climates.

Comments closed

Grass, winter sun, “desert” (#23 in SA/NT “outback” single image teaser series) + musical bonus

 

Technically, the country in which Alice Springs sits really is a desert environment.

It is, however, far from barren.

Central Australia is beautifully vegetated – botanically “rich”, not “poor”.

Trees and flowers are not its only beautiful plants.

Comments closed

Incandescent rock? (#22 in SA/NT “outback” single image teaser series)

 

 

Strictly speaking, the answer is “no, of course not”.

However, when early morning or late afternoon sunshine “hits” some arid zone Australian rock faces, “incandescent” is almost the only appropriate adjective.

As you can see, this one appears to be emitting light, even if it is “really” only being affected by light.

Comments closed

Easily overlooked… (#20 in SA/NT “outback” single image teaser series) + suitably sunny musical bonus

 

 

Some arid Australian plants are flamboyant, immediately arresting, intensely colourful.

However, to a hasty, inattentive human, not a few of them look “plain”, “drab”, barely-there.

Rich rewards await the more attentive: if you stop, and “zoom in”, you will discover that many such plants are exquisitely structured and their colour palette is much richer, and/or more variegated, than was initially apparent.

The petite, pictured example is probably a member of the genus Ptilotus; the name refers to their flowers’ “hairy” appearance.

Comments closed

Mount Sonder (#19 in SA/NT “outback” single image teaser series)

 

Even by Australian standards, this post’s hero is a relatively modest mountain.

130 kilometres west of Alice Springs, Mount Sonder (1,380 metres) is the Northern Territory’s 4th highest peak; with the sole exception of Western Australia, all other Australian States (& the ACT) have considerably higher mountains.

Everest (which I have seen, “in person”, albeit from some distance) comprehensively dwarfs it, but is no lovelier.

Mount Sonder is one of the most beautiful mountains I have ever seen.

Comments closed

“Tenacious”, in full context (#17 in SA/NT “outback” single image teaser series)

 

 

This post’s photo was taken from almost exactly the same vantage point as the previous post’s…and only a few seconds later.

In “standard format” terms, #16’s photo was a cropped version of a 120mm (short telephoto lens) view, whilst this post’s is a wide angle (24 mm) shot, unedited.

Comments closed

Zebra finches at waterhole (#15 in SA/NT “outback” single image teaser series + suitably fleet musical bonus)

 

 

This post’s photo is far-from-perfect.

Nonetheless, I think/hope it conveys a sense of just how fleet-and-flurrying (and splashy) is the to-and-fro of zebra finches at a drinking/bathing “station”.

In arid regions such “stations” can themselves appear and vanish, very rapidly.

The pictured pool sat at the base of the eastern wall of Jessie Gap on 14 June 2023. (photo is copyright Doug Spencer. Jessie Gap is a short drive from Alice Springs)

Musically,  I agree with the listener who suggested that if J.S. Bach had heard Chris Thile play, there’d be a set of Bach mandolin suites.

Comments closed