During last Saturday afternoon’s “golden hour” at Lake Monger, both were very apparent.
Above: a Great Crested Grebe, newly in “breeding” mode/plumage.
Below: a very territorial Dusky Moorhen, in hot pursuit of a rival/“intruder”.
Comments closedTag: Lake Monger
Over the relevant eight minutes I remained seated, as the sole pelican’s feet stayed still, several metres away, ”planted” in shallow water near Lake Monger’s western shore.
S/he reminded me of several Irish button accordion masters I have viewed from a similar distance – their feet moving not at all, but their body’s upper half highly mobile, its many movements oft-unpredictable.
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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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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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Lion’s teeth, wind-riders, and a bad reputation….
I am referring to members of Taraxacum – a large genus of flowering plants. which most Australians regard as weeds and/or as highly invasive pests.
They are generally known as dandelions; Australian has some native species, but the ones so very familiar to most of us are indeed “alien invaders”.
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Wednesday July 13 2022 was (yet another) glorious, bright winter’s day in the non-Scottish Perth.
A walk around the local lake was irresistible, even though mid-winter there usually proves unrewarding, bird-wise.
I almost decided to leave the camera at home…
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The wing’s shape is such that it can push effectively against the air, and also generate lift as it moves forwards, but that is no use without a very powerful downstroke to capture the air in the first place, and this is where muscular strength comes in.
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The wrist and ‘hand’ of a bird contain far fewer bones than those of mammals and reptiles.
Through the evolutionary process that transformed a foreleg into a wing, some of the original bones have been lost, and others fused together.
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The lives of most flying birds are fast-paced and make tremendous physical demands upon them.
A robust framework is essential, but the bird skeleton also needs flexibility and to be light enough for flight.
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Birds are all that remain today of the dinosaurs.
The history of their emergence from the mighty theropod dinosaur lineage is told through millennia of fossils, and evidence of this ancestry is apparent in their living bodies today.
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