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Australia's Bird Families; a brief introduction #2
This time I'm continuing the odyssey that I began here, a journey through (nearly) all the families of Australian birds, with just one representative of each. You might want to go back to that post if...
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Australia's Bird Families; a brief introduction #3
Here is the third and final instalment of this series of postings which seek to celebrate Australian birds by introducing a member of (nearly) every Australian Family. You may want to go back to the...
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Bomaderry Regional Park; a Nowra gem
I'm just back from an enthralling but sometimes demanding five weeks in South America (northern Peru and Brazil's Pantanal), and am still trying to catch up at all levels. I haven't been able to start...
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Trilha dos Tucanos; toucan track in Brazil's precious Atlantic forest
I've just made my first brief visit to Brazil, and am delighted at the prospect of going back there. The primary purpose was a reconnaissance trip to the fabulous Pantanal, with the aim of taking a...
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The Mighty Baobabs
This is another in my periodic series on favourite trees; the most recent one was here, and you can backtrack from there if you're so inclined. I've been wanting to write something on the wonderful...
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Animals Through Ancient Eyes; southern hemisphere art sites
In Peru recently, primarily looking at natural history, we also saw some remarkable art sites, all centuries old and representing the work of cultures now gone, though some of their descendants...
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Christmas Nature
With Christmas imminent, I've put together some totally inconsequential and non-sequiturial Christmas-and-nature-associated images for my penultimate post of 2017. In southern Australia there are...
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Farewell to 2017!
Continuing my tradition of recent years, to mark the changeover of years I've selected just one photo from each month of 2017. As ever I don't make any pretences to photographic excellence, but have...
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Brazil's Amazing Pantanal; an introduction. Part 1.
The uanal is one of those places I'd always wanted to see (courtesy primarily, as with so many other things, of David Attenborough), but never expected to do so. That changed when, late last year, we...
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Brazil's Amazing Pantanal; an introduction. Part 2.
This, as promised, concludes the introduction to the extraordinary Panatanal, a vast seasonal wetland, claimed to be the world's largest (it is said to be ten times larger than the Everglades, and 15...
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Sturt's Desert Pea; a desert glory
I've been running an intermittent series on favourite trees for some time now, and was going to offer another today, but decided on a whim to instead introduce my favourite flower - so without further...
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Aguas Verdes Revisited; another good news bird ecotourism story
This is an update of a posting from a couple of years ago; since then I've revisited Aguas Verdes, and I believe it's worth retelling the story, while also reporting on updates to the project and...
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Cooktown; a tropical delight
I've not actually featured a town as a blog post topic before, and indeed hadn't intended to do so today. My original intent was to feature the lovely restored botanical garden - and indeed that will...
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Ibis and Spoonbills; odd-billed oldsters
Whichever continent you live on, you are sharing it with ibis and spoonbills - though only Australia has more than one spoonbill species. There are just six spoonbills in the world, and 29 ibis (though...
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ChaparrÃ; a special private reserve doing vital work
Northern Peru has many surprises for the visitor, not least because it far less well known and publicised than the tourist-seething south of the country. One of these is ChaparrÃ, a community-based...
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On This Day 1 March: Welsh National Day
From time to time over the years I've marked various national days, either by celebrating the natural history of the country, or by highlighting connections with Australian nature. Today it is the...
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My New Book!
Hello again. I don't normally advertise here - especially not for myself - but my new book on birds, Birds in their Habitats; journeys with a naturalist, has just been released, and if you enjoy my...
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Conifers of the South; #1 the cypresses
Another in my sporadic series of favourite trees - which covers quite a number when I start thinking about the concept. The most recent one was here, and you can work back from there if you're so...
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A Brief Walk on Black Mountain; a rain cheque!
The best laid plans etc - a family emergency intervened this week, so the second part of our series on the Southern Hemisphere conifers must wait another week. (And I must prepare for a radio interview...
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Conifers of the South; #2 the kauris, bunyas and podocarps
This is the second and final part of a series which began here; in a broader sense it's part of an intermittent series on 'favourite trees', links to which can be found in part 1. It's probably worth...
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