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Birds of (small) Prey
In my last post I included a photo of a cuckoo-shrike overpowering, after quite a struggle, a big phasmid (or stick insect). In terms of relative sizes of hunter and hunted it's probably the biggest...
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Amboseli; classic wild Kenya #1
Last year, as I have written before, we finally got to East Africa, celebrating a major new stage of our life. I have posted already on two magnificent Tanzanian parks which we were privileged to...
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Amboseli; classic wild Kenya #2: birds
In my last post I introduced (or perhaps reintroduced) you to one of Kenya's most famous national parks, though not an especially large one. It is best known for its elephants and glorious views (cloud...
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Currarong; the top of Beecroft
We're now back from a wander around New South Wales; like pretty much everyone in Australia (and indeed most of the world) we're in a COVID-induced cage at the moment, but NSW is a big and diverse cage...
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On Babblers; (or babbling on)
Babblers are surely among the most engaging of Australian birds, loud, rollicking highly communal larrikins, streaming across the ground between shrubs in the semi-arid scrublands. At night they pile...
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Mutawintji National Park; a dryland beauty
Very recently we hastily put together a trip to western New South Wales, to replace our original plan of taking people to Costa Rica, which of course we abandoned some time ago. We were first going to...
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Peas that Please #1; mostly local
The pea family Fabaceae (formerly Papilionaceae for the supposed butterfly resemblance of the flowers) is one of the largest in the world, with over 12,000 species; more than a thousand of these are...
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High in the Blue Mountains; Blackheath #1
The Blue Mountains loom large, both literally and in the history and mythology of European settlement of the Sydney area. They certainly had cultural importance for many thousands of years before that...
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High in the Blue Mountains; Blackheath #2 - plants
In my last post I introduced the lovely Rough Track cabins on the edge of the Blue Mountains National Park, just outside of Blackheath at the top of the mountains. I promised to conclude this brief...
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Lorikeets; the flash mob
Parrots are surely among the great treats of living in Australia. There are more than forty Australian species in the family Psittaculidae, which collectively cover the entire continent in every...
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Farewell to 2020!
It's a long time since I was sorely tempted to say 'and good riddance' to a year, but it truly has been a shocker for us all. Here it began as 2019 ended, with so much of eastern Australia (and...
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A Splendidly Orchidy Spring!
This southern spring just ended (in Australia we use the Meteorological definition, which means spring runs from 1 September to 30 November) has truly been a splendid one. After three years of intense...
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Blue Birds of Happiness #1
Many years ago I did a sporadic series on colours in nature. I have no intention of reprinting those now, but I'm assuming that even if you were reading this blog way back then (and I know some of you...
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Blue Birds of Happiness #2
This post continues from last time, when I introduced the fabulous nature of blue in birds (and most other animals). It's a trick of the light, so to speak. The feathers aren't 'blue' in the sense that...
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Blue Beasts of Happiness #3; anything but feathers!
For the last two postings (starting here) I've introduced some blue birds (including one bluebird) which I hope brought you some happiness in these challenging times. Well they brought some to me, so...
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Gluepot Reserve; one of the great Australian conservation success stories
The mallee comprises a vast swathe of semi-arid woodland stretching from the dry inland of south-eastern Australia to south-western Australia, reaching the coast in South Australia and across to the...
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Augrabies Falls NP; a magnifent South African dryland
I first visited Augrabies Falls, up near the Namibian border in north-western South Africa, back in 2005 and was smitten by it. To the north, in Botswana and Namibia, is the mighty Kalahari Desert. The...
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The Blue Mountains in Autumn
Not too long ago I did a 2-part post on the delights of the upper Blue Mountains, based on stays in summer and spring in the admirable Rough Track Cabins just outside of Blackheath in the upper Blue...
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The Vanishing Woodland Birds
This somewhat unsettling post is prompted by a truly uplifting event which seems to be still ongoing in Canberra. We are revelling in an influx of Swift Parrots, one of Australia's most threatened bird...
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Cairns Centenary Lakes and Flecker Botanic Gardens; a tropical haven
Winter has come in Canberra and, while mild by the standards of much of the Northern Hemisphere, it's cold enough to get me thinking fondly of the tropics. I've written about Cairns before, focussing...
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