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Category: nature and travel

150th Birthday today: Kings Park

 

 

On the first day of October in 1872 the British Parliament declared a Reserve on Perth’s Mount Eliza,

The new Perth Park overlooked the then decidedly modest capital of the Colony of Western Australia.

In 1901 Perth Park was renamed Kings Park, following the coronation of King Edward VII.

Until more than a decade into the 1900s, Perth was smaller than not a few of eastern Australia’s country towns.

Paradoxically, one reason why Perth managed to have a bigger, wilder – and, arguably, more wonderful, and equally central  – city park than New York’s Central Park is that when it was p/reserved, Kings Park’s site would have been viewed as utterly superfluous to Perth’s future urban expansion.

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Teal, dependents…

 

Perth’s Lake Monger sits within the Federal electorate of Curtin.

It was named after a Labor Prime Minister, but until 2022 Curtin was generally regarded as a perpetually-“safe” Liberal seat.

Curtin’s mostly-affluent electors include the adult residents of Australia’s wealthiest postcode.

In 2022, however, Curtin “fell” to “Teal independent” candidate Kate Chaney.

Apolitically speaking, Teals have thrived here for at least many thousands of years.

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Carnivore/ sexual deceiver (probably)/ bird-fanciers: Wireless Hill, Spring 2022.

 

Each of the headline’s descriptors applies to one or more of this post’s species – all blooming a deal less than a kilometre away from both a large shopping centre and one of Perth’s arterial roads.

For just about any “exceptional”, “extreme”, or “weird” form of flowering plant behaviour, southwestern Australia is the global hotspot.

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Birds, not bees: Wireless Hill, Spring 2022

 

Unsurprisingly, southwestern Western Australia produces many different honeys, each deliciously distinct.

The most prized varieties are produced from rare, endemic species.

However, Western Australia’s southwest also has the world’s highest proportion of flowering plants that do not feed and/or seduce/deceive insect pollinators; these flowers (all, endemic species) favour birds.

(a few rely also/instead on particular, very small, also-endemic mammals)

WA’s floral emblem is bird-adapted.

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Khichan, Rajasthan: Jains and cranes (2 of 2: “social drinking”)

 

Imagine the image above, devoid of context, and subjected to a “caption this photo” contest.

A suitably cornball “winner”:
a quiet drink with a few mates.

The featured image was taken with a long lens (560 mm) at 11.12 am on 20 February 2020.

The photo immediately below was taken just a few seconds later, from almost exactly the same vantage point, overlooking a pond/reservoir, a few minutes away from Khichan…

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Khichan, Rajasthan: Jains and cranes (1 of 2)

 

Cranes: in this case, Demoiselle cranes, the world’s smallest crane species,

Jains: adherents of Jainism, an Indian religion which is older than Christianity and Islam.

The practical application of Jainism’s central principle/vow has produced an astounding result.

For Demoiselle cranes (and for human admirers of one of the world’s more elegant birds) Khichan –  a modest village in the Thar Desert – is now the world’s most rewarding destination.

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