Posted in Australia, In Nature:, Understanding Nature on Oct 12th, 2011
Birdsong has evolved over immense periods of time, and with Australia’s Robins, you can hear that evolution in the songs these birds sing today.
Where we live in southern Australia, there are four closely related, ‘red-breasted’, Robin species (note these are Australian Robins of the Petroicidae family – unrelated to the European or American Robins):
The Rose [...]
Posted in Australia, Bird photography, In Nature: on May 10th, 2011
On my walk this morning I came across a small flock of Striated Thornbills feeding in the canopy. Here are a few photos of them…
These pics were not easy to get, as thornbills are continually on the move – even on this crisp and cold morning, when we awoke to our first overnight frost [...]
Posted in Australia, In Nature: on Feb 14th, 2011
Summer Frog Chorus, featuring Pobblebonks, Marsh Frogs and Crinias by Listening Earth
After 11 years of deep drought in southern Australia, we have finally had record-breaking rains, and the landscape is coming back to life.
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Posted in Australia, In Nature: on Feb 14th, 2011
Australian bush summer dawn chorus by Listening Earth
It is getting on for late summer, and the dawn chorus around our home is thinning out – it is still rich, but not as diverse or layered as even a few weeks ago.
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Posted in Australia, In Nature: on Feb 7th, 2011
In recent years, we have occasionally seen Square-tailed Kites cruising over the forest around our home. This has captured our attention because not only are they rare birds for our area, but they’re magnificent and graceful on the wing; quite large raptors with long wings, distinctly fingered primaries, and pale heads.
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Posted in Australia, In Nature:, Macro photography, Sarah's Photography on Feb 2nd, 2011
The Jewel and the Golden Orb spiders are two of the more common we have in the forest out the back of our place.
The last couple of weeks the bush has been booby trapped with their webs – when I have been walking or bike riding I often come back veiled in cobwebs.
So, in the [...]
Posted in Australia, In Nature: on Jan 18th, 2011
Pied Butcherbird singing at dawn, Darwin, NT by Listening Earth
We recently received an email from a listener asking whether we had any recordings of Pied Butcherbirds from ‘up north’.
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Posted in Australia, In Nature:, Listening on Dec 13th, 2010
Saraband for a Butcherbird – Mark de Brito by Listening Earth
Transcribing birdsong to musical notation is problematic, if not well-nigh impossible. Birdsong is just too sonically complex.
However the songs of some species do lend themselves to musical interpretation, and the sublime melodic phrases of Australia’s Pied Butcherbird have long fascinated musicians.
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Posted in Australia, In Nature:, Macro photography, Sarah's Photography, Wildflowers on Nov 6th, 2010
I was out early again this morning with my macro lens, this time looking for one of my favourite spring wildflowers - the fair and lovely Milkmaids (Burchardia umbellata). I found them dotted throughout a damp gully on our property, well protected and catching the first rays of the morning sun. They are a member [...]
Posted in Australia, In Nature:, Macro photography, Sarah's Photography, Wildflowers on Nov 5th, 2010
After 13 years of drought, we have had a wonderfully wet winter. One of the things I have been looking forward to is the bounty of spring and summer orchids in the bush on our property.
I have been out early today with my new 100mm macro lens to photograph the delicate Brown-clubbed Spider Orchids, (Caladenia [...]
