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Australian Magpies, Currawongs and Butcherbirds, the 'no nonsense' birds'
In this post I want to delve into the world of one of our most familiar bird families, comprising big birds, mostly black and white, and generally pretty tough. They include some of our most familiar...
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High Living #3: animals above the treeline
This is the third and final of a series on life above the treeline, mostly high up mountains but also closer to the poles, in both cases where there is no longer enough solar energy around the year to...
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High Living #2: plants above the treeline
In my last post we went soaring well above where most of us spend much time, way up in the mountains where the conditions are too harsh for trees to survive - ie above the treeline. Today I want to...
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High Living; above the treeline: #1
This is another in an irregular (and hitherto informal) series on habitats. Earlier ones were on intercontinental habitats mangroves and sandstone, and a uniquely Australian one, the mallee. I have...
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Birds' Feet; amazing feats
I've been wanting to do this post for a while, but there's a bit involved in it so I've deferred it a couple of times. However this winter isn't currently encouraging me to get out and about as much as...
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Rinyirru (Lakefield) National Park; a vast wild Queensland reserve
In the 1990s I first visited what was then Lakefield National Park, north of Cooktown at the base of Cape York Peninsula. I only stayed 3 nights the first time and though I thought it was one of the...
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An Alphabet of Mammals #2: N to Z
This is the second of my two-part Alphabet of Mammals series, which began here. If you're an orderly sort of person you might like to look at that first, especially to see what my guidelines are for...
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An Alphabet of Mammals #1: A to M
It's almost exactly a year since I offered an alphabet of birds, so maybe it's time to balance the ledger a bit by offering a companion alphabet, of mammals. Where possible I'll offer per letter one...
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Atherton #2: Crater Lakes NP
In my most recent post, I introduced the fascinating Atherton Tableland in northern tropical Queensland. It, or at least the rainforest remnants it supports, is part of the Wet Tropics of Queensland...
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Atherton: a tiny, despoiled but still special tropical tableland
Eight hundred metres above steamy Cairns, in tropical north Queensland, is a small volcanic plateau, not much more than 35km from north to south, and 25km west to east. Over the last four million...
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Waders Across the World
Of course lots of familiar waterbirds wade in water, including herons, ibis, spoonbills, plovers and flamingoes, but this post concerns one particular family which is officially called 'the waders'...
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Farewell to 2025
It is my annual tradition here to close the year with a review of our year as represented by one or two photos from each month. As always seems to happen there is one month (always in winter!) where I...
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An Alphabet of National Parks; #3 O to Z
Here is the last of this somewhat monumental series, which began here. (The hyperbole in that sentence refers only to length of the series!) I got a sense from the readership numbers that the interest...
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Can There Be Beauty in a Scientific Name?
Well yes, if part of it starts with cali or calo or cala (or the same with a double l). This is because they all derive from the Greek kallos for beauty. This time I'm the midst of the three-part...
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An Alphabet of National Parks; #2 H to N
Recently I posted the first of what is to be a three-part series, effectively a tribute to nearly all the national parks that I've had the good fortune to visit and photograph. I've used 'national...
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Hello Possums!
I imagine that most of my Australian readers will recognise the allusion in the title, but for anyone else you could search for 'Dame Edna' on your favourite search engine or, perhaps more sensibly,...
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An Alphabet of National Parks; #1 A to G
Hello and welcome back to Ian Fraser Talking Naturally after a bit of a hiatus while we've been in warmer climes. I haven't had time yet to edit all the photos from our trip, but this post is something...
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Wild Ireland#2: some animals
In my last post I offered some impressions and understandings of the Irish landscape and some of the flowering plants we enjoyed. Here I am concluding this two part series by introducing some of the...
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Wild Ireland:#1 landscapes and some plants
You may recall that we're not long back from nearly five weeks in Ireland, where our very enjoyable and educational road trip was an inevitable mix of cultural (including some truly excellent food,...
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Borrowed Bird Names
I've been toying with the idea of this post - comparing the Australian birds whose names have been 'borrowed' from European birds with the 'originals' - for quite some time but without the illustrative...
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