Natural splendour, real musics, wines, wordpower
Western Australia’s south coast is mostly unspoilt, uncrowded, wonderfully wild.
However, in February 2025 sunshine, strong winds and big waves were generally “AWOL”, and the usually-brilliant, clear light was mostly flat, hazy and/or smoke-tainted.
This trip yielded an unprecedentedly low number of worthwhile opportunities for landscape/seascape photography!
Nonetheless, even on a “flat, grey day”…
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Both photos were taken within a few seconds of each other.
The pictured individual appeared to relish dip #2 even more than it had evidently enjoyed its first immersion, five minutes earlier.
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Chapters #39 through #41 feature the same individual; #39’s photo was taken immediately after that morning’s first sighting of him/her.
S/he was so sodden as to be unrecognisable, in terms of species or age.
The featured image, above, was taken three minutes later.
I then assumed that our hero/ine was relishing the morning sunshine’s drying power… and would soon be airborne.
I was wrong.
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#40 will answer the headline’s question!
The very tiny star of this and the next two chapters was photographed within a single five minute “window” on the morning of 09 February 2025.
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This chapter’s three previously-unpublished photos show the same individual.
They were taken within a single minute, on the morning of 07 February 2025.
Above and below, this grey fantail had just emerged from what soon proved to be the first of two immersions.
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You are looking at a very widely-distributed , small, insectivorous bird.
His or her feathers are not wet, so the bird appears to be a deal bigger/meatier than it really is.
Rhipidura albiscapa – the grey fantail – is very easy to see, across most of non-arid Australia.
I photographed the pictured individual at 5.47 pm on 11 February 2025, near Youngs Siding.
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Wonderful as are the “giant” trees in WA’s southwest, their forests’ understorey is every bit as splendid, and is also unique.
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Eucalyptus Jacksonii is one of three Tingle species; the other two are less gigantic, but still very substantial.
All have very thick “skins”, as pictured.
They occur only within the “Walpole Wilderness”.
Like their “biggest brother”, a Rate’s tingle (Eucalyptus brevistylis) or a yellow tingle (Eucalyptus guilfoylei) can live for 400 years.
It appears increasingly likely that no 21st century “newborn” is even remotely likely to attain such a lifespan.
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The photo shows part of the base of a Red Tingle, Eucalyptus Jacksonii; no other Eucalypt attains a greater girth.
The pictured example is not as “obese” as the nearby “Giant Tingle Tree”, but it is also several hundred years old, and massive.
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The Missing Goose is a cafe/restaurant on Flinders Island, in Bass Strait, north of the northeastern edge of “mainland” Tasmania.
(its Slovenian proprietor/chef rescued an orphaned Cape Barren gosling. She took delight in its return to the wild, but fondly hopes that its adult self may, eventually, choose her venue’s backyard as its nesting site)
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