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Pelican Yoga Posts

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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Khichan rooftop (teaser)

 

Q: why did many expensive lenses cross oceans, and the lenses’ owners then get up so very early on a crisp Rajasthan winter morning?

A: they wanted to secure a “good” position on a rooftop in an unassuming Thar Desert village.

The more meaningful answer has to be seen to be believed…as you will see in Pelican Yoga’s next two, lavishly-illustrated posts.

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McGowangrad, winter ‘22: series finale (perpetual flower show)

 

WA’s emblematic flower may be synonymous with Springtime, but it is no slave to the calendar.

Well before Winter 2022’s alleged end, it – and not a few other “iconic”, “Spring-flowering”  WA endemics – were already very evidently flowering in the quasi-natural bushland section of Perth’s Kings Park.

It is an easy walk – or an even shorter free bus trip’s distance – from the CBD.

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McGowangrad, winter ‘22: #24 in series (“terrible beauty” in another Hollywood)

 

 

The only Hollywood to have repeatedly appeared in Pelican Yoga is a small but significant piece of remnant bushland, adjacent to Perth’s Karrakatta Cemetery.

Until 19 January this year, the organism pictured above was a fine, living example of a weird, wonderful, and very rare Western Australian Acacia species.

When I photographed a few of its “leaves”, glowing in bright winter light at 2.33 pm on 01 July 2022, it and they were as dead as the many thousands of entombed persons, nearby.

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McGowangrad, winter ‘22: #23 in series (Australasian grebe, Lake Monger)

 

As is often true of Tachybaptus novaehollandiae, our hero/ine was repeatedly disappearing and re-emerging.

Every time s/he resurfaced, the excellence of his/her feathers’ water-repellence was readily apparent.

Incidentally, as highly responsible parents, Australasian grebes sometimes eat their own feathers; click here to discover precisely why they do so.

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