Natural splendour, real musics, wines, wordpower
This post’s featured image was taken five minutes after the immediately-previous chapter’s.
As you can see, the bobtail was still abiding by an instruction famously issued by the most celebrated 20th century Welsh poet: Do not go gentle into that good night
Comments closed
The Dugite is a highly venomous brown snake.
Pseudonaja affinis does very well in 21st century Perth, where house mice (“kindly”/accidentally introduced by European colonists) have become the species’ preferred prey.
Dugites, however do still target “traditional” prey: lizards, rodents and other snakes, including fellow dugites.
On 20 September 2025 a close encounter of the “dugite v bobtail” kind provided the most dramatic experience of our 42 years as frequent visitors to Kings Park.
We were in “wildflower” mode, and had not expected a “safari” experience!
Comments closed
Photographic Exhibit “A” was taken at 11.31 am on 21 September 2025.
We were on a walking trail within the bushland section of one of the world’s greatest urban parks.
Had we wished to walk from the Kings Park “murder scene” to the very centre of Perth’s CBD, it would not have taken us more than 30 minutes.
Comments closed
Even a suburban building site can contain examples of how so many living things “really get going in spring.”
Looked at closely, the “eruption” of a fungal fruiting body can be a surprisingly violent event.
A “mushy” can move a deal of earth, along with the “litter” thereon.
Comments closed
Generally, sun orchids – the 100+ members of the genus Thelymitra – are true to their common name.
They orient their flowers to the sun, open them only when it shines brightly upon them, and always close them before nightfall.
I am no botanist, but am 90 percent certain that there is just one kind of time and place to enjoy an entirely-natural encounter with the pictured, very elegant blue sun orchid species: on a sunny day in southwestern WA.
Comments closed
In Perth the pictured species is indeed common, but Perth is the only Australian capital city which is within its home range
In springtime in Perth Diuris corymbosa – the common donkey orchid, aka “wallflower orchid” – is usually conspicuously present in just about any “bushy” location.
Spring 2025 is a bumper one for this species.
Inevitably, some folks fail to appreciate its beauty, simply because it is so common in Perth, so easy to see.
Comments closed
Most Australian humans regard willie wagtails (Rhipidura leucophrys) fondly and encounter them frequently.
They are also well-liked in the rest of their range – Melanesia and eastern Indonesia.
On 21 September we – and circa 100 other people – enjoyed lunch at a popular Shenton Park eatery.
From our almost-outside table, just inside an open door, we watched two very industrious wagtails construct a substantial portion of their next nest.
To say the least, their choice of building materials was highly eclectic!
Comments closed
All will be revealed in the next chapter.
At lunchtime on 21 September the pictured “construction site” was within two metres of our almost-alfresco table at a popular eatery in Shenton Park.
Comments closed
In global terms, Australia’s major cities – Perth, most especially – are surprisingly rich in “wild”-ish, “bushy”, quasi-“natural” locations.
They are not all in parks and reserves.
Some are just a few square metres apiece – vibrant, tiny “Islands” within an otherwise-stolid “sea” of cement, asphalt, lawns, graceless buildings, etc.
Comments closed
A clear majority of Australia’s Banksia species occur naturally in southwest Western Australia, exclusively.
One of the most arresting is Banksia prionoties.
Its common name – Acorn Banksia – refers to the appearance of its large flower spikes during the early stages of their flowering.
As you can see here, at that stage the flower spike is both elegant and spectacular, with each spike/“cone” exquisitely clad with hundreds of flowers. (many people are unaware of this reality. They misperceive each spike as “the flower”, singular)
As this post’s photo illustrates, the spike’s “post-flowering” appearance is every bit as spectacular, but rather less elegant.
Comments closed
