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Orchids of Southern Peru 1: Acjanaco Pass, Manu Biosphere Reserve
A few weeks ago, on request, I posted on a few Ecuadorian orchids of the estimated 4000 plus; you can refresh your memory here. It would be unfair not to continue the general theme and acknowledge the...
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Rosellas; a flash mob
In south-eastern Australia, from Brisbane to Adelaide - ie where the majority of the human population lives - one of the commonest and most familiar birds is also surely one of the most colourfully...
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The Koel of the Wild; an exotic tale?
I got back from two delightful and stimulating weeks in Tasmania a couple of days back to discover that I'd missed a delicious piece of bird-inspired political farce at home - mystifyingly, the Hobart...
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Enter Olinguito
One of my very first postings in this blog asked the question "When is a REALLY lousy photo OK?". My suggested answer to the question then was "when it's the only way to properly tell a story that I...
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Ben Lomond - the Tasmanian one!
There is a lot of homesickness and a need to commemorate the 'home country' to be found in Australian place names, and Anglo-Tasmanians seem to have suffered particularly strongly from the malaise....
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South American Monkeys; wonderful and mysterious
Anyone who has stepped into a South American forest and become aware of monkeys peering quietly down or crashing in noisy gangs through the foliage will have felt their wonder. And yes, maybe mine is...
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Camouflage; hiding in the open
Much has been written on the topic of camouflage in nature, and I don't have the access or the equipment to show you some of the truly marvellous examples in nature that I'm sure you've seen on the...
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Camouflage #2; spinelessly hiding
Last time I introduced the concept of camouflage in nature by looking at some vertebrates - mammals, birds, reptiles and frogs - which have evolved some superb patterns, shapes and postures to...
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On This Day 13 March; death of Ronald Gunn
It's probably fair to say that Ronald Gunn is not widely known, at least outside of his adoptive home in Tasmania, and outside the world of botanical history. Part of the fault is his own - though...
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When Movies Fail Basic Biogeography; does it matter?
It mattered to me when I was a boy, getting taken to Tarzan movies for the animals. (I was less keen on the mandatory quicksand scenes and Loyal Native Bearers falling off narrow cliff tracks.) But I...
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Tasmania's Endemic Birds; born of ice and isolation
The current ice age began some 2.6 million years ago. The assertion that we are now in the grip of an ice age might surprise you, but that's because ice ages comprise a series of cycles of glaciation...
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Rain Check
Hello all, and my apologies to those hoping for another posting today, as promised.The last day or so has been all about hospitals and stents, rather than anything healthier and happier. All looks good...
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Orchids of Southern Peru 2; the eastern slopes
As I mentioned a few days ago we've been having some serious health distractions in our home this week; the patient (not me!) came home today, to my immense relief, so it's time to make you another...
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Kibale Forest National Park; a primative haven
No, not a typo or colonial ignorance - Kibale really is a fabulous place for primates, including human visitors! Kibale Forest National Park covers some 80,000 hectares of primarily rainforest in the...
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Snow Gums Sublime
Periodically I've dedicated a post here to my favourite trees - the latest was here, and you can track back from there if you so desire. The last three, including this one, have been dedicated to...
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Some Classic Names; plants
In the heyday of taxonomy - from the late 18th to well into the 19th centuries, when there were scarcely enough working taxonomists to cope with the flood tide of plant and animal specimens pouring in...
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Classic Birds
Last posting was about some plant names derived from classical mythology; I promised that this time I'd do the same with some animal names. Well, yes and no... In practice I discovered that there were...
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More Classical Animal Names
This is the last - for which you may be grateful! - in this little series on plant and animal names derived from classical mythology. Having talked at some length on birds last time, we'll conclude...
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Orchids by the Ice; Patagonia
It probably seems surprising to my Northern Hemisphere readers, but outside of Antarctica only the southern tip of South America lies below 50 degrees south; Australia and Africa come nowhere near it....
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Ball's Pyramid; mighty outlier of Lord Howe Island
I often think of a wonderful week we spent a while back on Lord Howe Island, out in the Tasman Sea (part of the Pacific Ocean) 600km off New South Wales. For some more information, here's a past...
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