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Costa Rica; where the Americas meet #3. Animals, the tinies and the hairies.
This is the third of a four-part series on Costa Rica. As I explained last time, the planned post to incorporate all the animals except birds got too long, so here is the rest of that one, with the...
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Dhilba Guuranda–Innes National Park; a South Australian coastal glory
It took decades, but this spring I finally got back to this park which was a favourite of mine while I lived in Adelaide. Lou had never seen it and, as a coastal aficionado, was instantly hooked!Dawn...
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Sandstone; perfect building material for a landscape
This is my last post for 2023 (except for the traditional New Years Eve farewell to the year). It's a long one, though it mostly comprises photos, and is different from anything I've offered before in...
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Farewell to 2023!
I've now established this as an annual tradition, a review of our year as represented by one photo from each month. (As sometimes happens, at least one month passed with no appropriate photos, in which...
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Wollongong Botanic Gardens in a city of steel and coal
Lou's family lived in Wollongong when she was little and her father was just embarking on his life as a community pharmacist. However her family's connections with this busy city on the coast south of...
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Eye Spy; what colour is a bird's eye?
The simple answer is just about any colour at all; the tricky follow-up though is a two-parter, 'why and how?'. However if you're looking for answers to these questions, you probably don't need to read...
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Ubirr and Bardedjilidji; a special Kakadu corner
It's quite a while (too long in fact) since I've visited Kakadu National Park, a park of world significance, as evidenced by its UNESCO World Heritage Site listing. Covering two million hectares it is...
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Iridescence: living rainbows
A few years ago now, I talked about blue feathers (and other natural blues). The basis of blue in bird plumage has nothing to do with pigments, but everything to do with the physics of light. Very...
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The Pilliga; one of New South Wales' great forests
On the north-western slopes of NSW, some 400km inland, is a mighty forest and woodland covering some half a million hectares (5000 square kilometres) of sandstone. It is divided roughly 50:50 between...
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A World of Beetles
The great British-born biologist JBS Haldane famously once said (well perhaps, it seems surprisingly uncertain) "If one could conclude as to the nature of the Creator from a study of creation it would...
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Celebrating Botanic Gardens Day #1
On Sunday 26 May (ie just after this posting) we will be celebrating Botanic Gardens Day. I'd love to offer you a potted history of the day but that appears to be a tightly guarded secret. After...
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Celebrating Botanic Gardens Day#2; some animals of the gardens
In my most recent post, I celebrated Botanic Gardens Day, which this year fell on Sunday 26 May. There I introduced and celebrated a range of 18 mostly regional gardens (though briefly also touching on...
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Corymbia; ghosts, blood and spots!
This is my first post for a while as we've been exploring the wonders of south-western Queensland, as I mentioned in my last post. We brought back plenty of material for future posts, but for now I'm...
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Welford National Park; big skies and wide plains
As my regular readers may recall, we are recently home from a memorable four weeks in the semi-arid lands of south-western Queensland. This is the first post - but not the last, be warned! - to stem...
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Owls; the ultimate night riders
I've been meaning to do a post on owls for some time now, but always felt that I didn't have enough decent photos to make it worth while. At this stage I'm probably not going to be able to improve on...
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Gundabooka National Park; another dryland treat
When I was a young feller growing up in Adelaide, the phrase 'back of Bourke' (an idiom for somewhere very remote and 'outback') evoked strong emotions in me; I really wanted to explore 'out there'. I...
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The Magnificent Mallee; long despised, finally treasured. #1
 This is a topic close to my heart. I grew up in South Australia, and Adelaide is nearer toremaining mallee than any other state capital (with the possible exception of Melbourne). Dad loved it, and I...
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Magnificent Mallee #2: some plants of the mallee
Last time, I offered something of a blogging ode to one of my favourite habitats, the wonderful mallee lands of inland semi-arid Australia. If you missed it you might want to look at it for some...
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Magnificent Mallee: #3 some mallee animals
This posting concludes my series on the mallee, among my very favourite habitats, which began here if you missed the start. It isn't necessary to read that in order to appreciate this one, but a bit of...
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Life at Home; a busy little garden
The year is winding down and so am I, so for the last 'normal' post of the year I'm doing something low-key and a bit indulgent. (My actual last post of the year is always the New Years Eve 'Farewell...
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Farewell to 2024!
I've now established this as an annual tradition, a review of our year as represented by one photo - occasionally two where necessary - from each month. (As sometimes happens, at least one month passed...
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Queensland's Channel Country
I've mentioned here before my love affair with south-west Queensland, a vast and varied area which is somehow noticeably 'different' from adjacent NSW and South Australia. An important reason for this...
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Queensland's Channel Country#2: some animals
Last time I offered an introduction to south-west Queensland's Channel Country, one of our (many) favourite destinations, a vast arid and semi-arid area of wide plains and braided stream channels that...
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Animals Drinking; more to it than meets the tongue
All vertebrate life (and probably all other life) needs water, and the simplest way is seemingly just to drink it. However it's not always that simple actually and in fact quite a few animals,...
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An Alphabet of Less Usual Birds
I'm putting this together amidst a bit of a whirl of preparing to go away for five weeks - and to the Northern Hemisphere! In all our travelling over the past decade and a half or so (mostly through my...
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