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On this Day, 10 August, Ecuador Independence Day; El Cajas NP
Just recently I chose to celebrate Peru's national day here - how could I do less for Ecuador?! There is some confusion - though of course not in Ecuador! - about the actual day, as 24 May is also...
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The Pollination Story, Part 5; beyond birds - other vertebrate helpers
This is part of an ongoing series on pollination, which I truly believe is one of the world's great stories. Last time we got as far as looking at the role of birds, dream customers for a plant wanting...
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There Be Dragons!
There certainly be! (OK, there certainly are...). Some 350 species of them in fact, found across Africa (and slightly into Europe), Asia and Australia. This family, Agamidae, is a 'sister' family to...
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Magnificent Murchison (the Ugandan one). Part 1.
The bracketed clarification in the title refers to the lovely and dramatic Murchison Gorge area of Western Australia, which I introduced in these pages last year. Now it's the turn of the wonderful...
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Magnificent Murchison (the Ugandan one). Part 2.
This is to conclude an introduction to the wonders of Murchison Falls National Park in western Uganda, began here in my last posting. While we met some animals in the context of specific places last...
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Wattle Day - and Spring!
For reasons I don't have at my fingertips, Australia uses the agreed Meteorological definition of the seasons, which sets the change of season at the first of September (and December, March and June),...
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Homage to Kingfishers: 1
Kingfishers truly are one of the joys of life, with 90-95 species to be enjoyed in every continent except Antarctica. Moreover they've been brightening the planet for a long time - indeed the fossil...
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Homage to Kingfishers: 2
Last time I had the pleasure of introducing some of the Tree Kingfishers, by far the most numerous of the three kingfisher families as generally recognised. Today I've been looking forward to...
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On This Day, 18 September: Chile's National Day, featuring two saltos.
On this day in 1810 the Spanish colonial governor of Chile was deposed and replaced by a Council of seven, based in Santiago; this was only the beginning of the end of Spanish rule, but it is marked...
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Considering the Lilies: part 1
The other day we were walking in Mulligans Flat Nature Reserve on the northern edge of Canberra; for the whole time we surrounded by millions of Early Nancies, low-growing native lilies.Massed Early...
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Considering the Lilies: part 2
Last time I started an exploration of the wonderful world of lilies, including their complicated definition, which I finally settled upon, for the purposes of this blog, as plants which have in the...
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Stunning Española, a Galápagos jewel; part 1
Little Española, in the far south-east of the Galápagos archipelago, is among the oldest of the islands (other than those that are already submerged, further to the east), eroding away into the sea....
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Considering the Lilies; part 3
This is the penultimate posting of this series on the delightful lilies; see here for the first posting and how we're defining lilies. The second posting follows that one, so will be easy for you to...
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Considering the Lilies; part 4
At last - you may well be thinking - here is the last in this series on the lovely lilies. It started here, and followed from there. In this last posting I want to introduce you to some beautiful...
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Preening; how birds stay beautiful - and alive...
Feathers to a bird are, if not the Meaning of Life, then the necessity of it. They insulate (this was their original purpose), they disguise from enemies or display to their rivals and intended mates,...
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The Mysterious Owl of San Isidro
Just back from another visit to wonderful Ecuador, it's perhaps inevitable that my first posting will relate to that. I'm easing myself back into life in Australia (albeit only for another 3 weeks!) so...
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"Good night, and thanks for the tinamou..."
In 10 trips to South America I'd never managed to see a tinamou, to my chagrin. I'd heard them, and on one occasion the group just in front of me saw some walk across the track, but not me. It's...
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Walking Watarrka; the King's Canyon Rim walk
After a couple of postings reflecting some personal highlights of my recent trip to Ecuador, it's probably time to come a bit closer to home for this one. The George Gill Range lies 300 kilometres...
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On This Day 13 July: Allan Cunningham's Birthday
Allan Cunningham was one of the great botanist-explorers of Australia, but his interests were strictly in that order. He travelled in order to find new plants, and new places were good places to look...
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Thinking Pinkly
It's been a while since I offered a new colour in my very intermittent 'colours in nature' series - the last was green, found here, and you can track it back from there.Way back someone asked me to be...
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