Generally, birds make very sure that they get properly wet, no matter how shallow is the available “bath”.
The pictured individual is a grey fantail, Rhipidura albiscapa.
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No prize for guessing that you are looking at a male of its species.
This species – Malurus elegans, the Red-winged fairywren – can only be looked at in Australia’s southwestern corner.
Shy and secretive. Difficult to observe, says The Complete Guide to Australian Birds.
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Yesterday afternoon, overlooking an “iconic” Perth beach, I had an astonishing avian encounter.
I in no way resemble any alleged version of St Francis, and Cottesloe is very far from Assisi, but…
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This post’s photos were taken about 40 minutes after we had crossed the “vandalised” footbridge over the Denmark River.
Both show the same individual.
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The image shows the sign on the footbridge over the Denmark River, as recently modified.
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Harewood Forest is definitely not “virgin”.
Until well into the 19th century it was a pristine, very tall, Karri-dominant forest
By circa 1900 no grand trees remained; all millable timber had been “mined”.
Happily, however, the forest has regrown well.
Magnificent as are southwest WA’s tall trees – all, WA-endemic – they are far from their forests’ only “WA-only”, wonderful/wondrous-strange plants.
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This series is the fruit of our most recent trip to our favourite part of Australia.
The featured image looks east from Wilson Head (which is immediately west/southwest of Denmark’s Ocean Beach and the Wilson Inlet) over to West Cape Howe.
Torbay Head – on the far/hidden, southeast tip of West Cape Howe – is Western Australia’s southernmost point.
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Where else in the world could one be less than 20 kilometres distant from an eminently civilised town of more than 40,000 permanent residents (plus a large number of tourists) , and enjoy the pictured experience?
My beloved and I are not visible in the featured image.
It does, however, show all other humans present at Muttonbird Beach during the late afternoon “golden hour” on 21 March 2021.
To reach this glorious, safe-swimming spot, on a perfect “beach day”, we drove for less than 30 minutes, on good roads…
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Silicon – usually, as quartz crystals – is the primary component of most of the world’s light-coloured ocean beaches.
However, in tropical and subtropical waters where coral reefs thrive, calcium carbonate is more likely to be a so-called “white” sand beach’s “hero” ingredient.
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East Java’s Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park (aka, within Indonesia, as “TNBTS”) contains multiple volcanoes.
Mount Semeru (3,676 metres) is Java’s highest peak, atop which snow sometimes sits, albeit briefly.
However, the park’s “tourist magnet” is a volcano that is much less lofty, but currently much more active
Mount Bromo (2, 329 metres) is surrounded by Indonesia’s only desert-like expanse.
Bromo is one of the four or five “new” volcanoes (visibility was limited when we were there. some sources say “four”, others say “five”) that have arisen from the floor of the huge caldera created by the much older Tengger volcano.
The Tengger Sand Sea’s “sands” are a mix of volcanic ash and sand – the mostly-basaltic “fruit” of Bromo’s eruptions.
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