It’s springtime when Magpies build nests and rear young.
Come too close and you will be swooped on.
Magpies are fine fliers so this photograph is just about capturing the high speed action.
Shot with Canon 5D Mk II and Canon 28-300 L series lens with image stabiliser.
f8 @ 1/320 sec ISO 400.
The magpie was 6 metres away. I should have tried for a faster shutter speed but he/she wasn’t hanging around.
How tough are yakkas?
Survival in the most inhospitable of locations.
The first of the season’s thunderstorms – a spectacular hour long display of electric power from a towering Cumulonimbus with almost non-stop bursts of sheet lightning.
While inspiring to watch the fireworks at the end of my street, the storm was unleashing torrential rain and a mini tornado about 50 kilometres away near Wilpena Pound.
The hills and mountains of Warraweena Conservation Park, northern Flinders Ranges.
Unfortunately in the blogger system, this image has lost a lot of the original colours .
The golden glow from the early morning sunrise has been washed out.
My apologies.
An interesting optical illusion created on the very shallow and receding waters of Lake Eyre by the cloud cover overhead.
A large bearded dragon lizard catching the spring sunshine and living dangerously.
There were several kites and a wedge-tailed eagle patrolling the neighborhood but this sun-worshipper remained perched in his tree top for several hours without becoming a meal.
Bearded Dragons are fairly common in Outback Australia and while it’s not unusual the see them in trees, they are more often seen on the ground.
The lizard is able to change colour to fit in with its surrounds too. A handy talent.
Because it’s close to home the old seeder gets a good going over pictorially.
You might even call it a photographic model even if it is a rusting old piece of farm machinery.
It’s getting character as it gets older.
It’s fascinating how many wheels and cogs and levers made this machine work.
The aging metal takes on an interesting texture too which lends itself to being shot in black and white.
While Lake Eyre might be the largest lake in Australia wet or dry, there’s another about a hundred kilometres to the west that boasts, I think, the longest name for an Australian lake.
It’s called Lake Caddi for short but it’s real name is Lake Cadibarrawirracanna.
It means ‘stars dancing on water’ and with most aboriginal names the first syllable is emphasised, the rest run together.
It’s about half way along the road between Cooper Pedy and William Creek.
Although it is quite a size, recent rains have made the tracks to it almost impassable. This was as far as I was game to go without getting bogged.
There is quite an old poem about Lake Cadibarrawirracanna and I believe the words go something like those below.
There’s a lake in South Australia,
Little lake with lovely name.
And the stories woven ‘round it
From the pickaninnies came.
Every night the native mothers
Croon this lovely lullaby.
Croon across the moonlit waters,
To the stars up in the sky
CHORUS
Cadibarrawirracanna.
Little star upon the lake,
Guide me through the hours of darkness.
Keep me safely ‘till I wake.
Pickaninny heads are nodding,
Drowsy crooning fills the air.
Little eyes at last are closing,
And the boat of dreams is there.
Guide my boat across the water,
‘Cross the water, still and deep.
Light me with your little candle,
Safely to the land of sleep.
CHORUS
Arkaroola’s Freeling Heights area again. Exquisite. So rugged.
Typical rugged northern Flinders Ranges country between Mt Ward and the Freeling Heights in the background.
Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary, South Australia.
