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This and the next several chapters in this series all feature wet sand.
Today’s post also has oystercatchers, in “reflective” mode.
Both of the relevant strands are on the northern edge of the Southern Ocean, according to most Australians.
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Definition, ex Wikipedia:
A spit (cognate with the word for a rotisserie bar) or sandspit is a deposition bar or beach landform off coasts or lake shores. It develops in places where re-entrance occurs, such as at a cove’s headlands, by the process of longshore drift by longshore currents. The drift occurs due to waves meeting the beach at an oblique angle, moving sediment down the beach in a zigzag pattern. This is complemented by longshore currents, which further transport sediment through the water alongside the beach.
If a spit is extraordinarily long, long-established and well-vegetated, many people will fail to recognise that it is a spit.
This post’s big spit is not in the photo’s foreground, and does not have an enormous number of pelicans and cormorants standing upon it.
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S/he may have deserved another.
However, the pictured tern was alone…as far as we could see, at least.
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Now considered by some demographers as part of “greater Perth”, Mandurah was once an “unspoilt”, sleepy little town on a very big inlet.
It is now Western Australia’s second largest city, with circa 100,000 permanent residents.
Famous/infamous for its “canal developments”, Mandurah still has a surprisingly rich array of natural attractions that are well-protected, but easy-to-access
One of them is an internationally significant bird sanctuary.
To reach it, some migratory birds travel considerably longer distances than do the English-born humans for whom Mandurah is also a “magnet”.
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Wednesday July 13 2022 was (yet another) glorious, bright winter’s day in the non-Scottish Perth.
A walk around the local lake was irresistible, even though mid-winter there usually proves unrewarding, bird-wise.
I almost decided to leave the camera at home…
One CommentToo many Perth residents have never visited Herdsman Lake, nor given any thought to it.
Sir David Attenborough, who described Herdsman as “the Great Fen of Perth”, is keenly aware that Perth is one of very few cities to have such a substantial, internationally significant, RAMSAR-listed wetland within 10 kilometres of its GPO.
Far from pristine, and more “wetland” than “lake”, Herdsman is, nonetheless, a very special place.
As you can see, this year’s shortest day was not at all “wintry”.
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One of the pleasures of Australian life is to look up and see pelicans “surfing the thermals”, soaring, spiralling ever-higher, with so very little apparent effort.
They are also wonderful to watch as they take off from water (or land on it); then, however, a great amount of effort is spectacularly evident.
Pelicans are one of “our” world’s largest, living, flying “machines”.
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The wing’s shape is such that it can push effectively against the air, and also generate lift as it moves forwards, but that is no use without a very powerful downstroke to capture the air in the first place, and this is where muscular strength comes in.
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The wrist and ‘hand’ of a bird contain far fewer bones than those of mammals and reptiles.
Through the evolutionary process that transformed a foreleg into a wing, some of the original bones have been lost, and others fused together.
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The lives of most flying birds are fast-paced and make tremendous physical demands upon them.
A robust framework is essential, but the bird skeleton also needs flexibility and to be light enough for flight.
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