Humpbacks ahoy! Whale watching off Sydney

We’ve been meaning to go whale watching since we moved to Sydney and today we finally got round to it. The weather was not the best - and the sea was a bit choppier than ideal - but it was a fantastic morning, well spent. Best of all, we got to see humpback whales!

It was only a small pod - a mother and calf, plus “escort” - but we got some reasonably close up views when one of them was having a play.

As well as a couple of breaches, this included a couple of good tail slaps.

Amazing animals. We saw some birds too - and, of course, some great views of the cliffs around Sydney harbour. All in all, a recommended half day trip.

A handsome beast

Today, I decided to take the day off and went to Taronga Zoo in advance of the Oceans of Plastic event. Like most people with an interest in conservation and animal welfare, I have mixed feelings about zoos. In an ideal world, we wouldn’t need them; unfortunately, we do not live in an ideal world and zoos are an increasingly important bastion of biodiversity.

They are also a place where you can go and marvel at nature. And what a marvellous chap this is:

How anyone can look at that and think, “I really must shoot that” (other than with a camera), is totally beyond me.

The Day the Earth Smiled

This somehow passed me by when it happens (perhaps caught up with the upcoming move to Australia) but the latest episode of the Infinite Monkey Cage podcast (series 12, episode 4) featured a short segment on “The Day the Earth Smiled”.

From the Cassini Imaging website:

On July 19, 2013, in an event celebrated the world over, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft slipped into Saturn’s shadow and turned to image the planet, seven of its moons, its inner rings – and, in the background, our home planet, Earth.

The CICLOPS site has the full picture. This section is from the Wikipedia page and has Earth marked with an arrow.

Pretty humbling stuff.

There’s more at CICLOPS including a higher resolution image of the Earth and Moon:

Sydney Sunset

Today, I met up with an ex-student who moved to Sydney this week. After lunch at Coogee and a bit of the afternoon at UNSW, we headed into the city and ended up at circular quay for sunset.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Sydney does do a good sunset.

The cocksure cockatoo

As well as my first wild wallaby, my Lorne trip earlier this year featured some good photo opportunities with sulphur-crested cockatoos. Although I included a couple of photos in the earlier post, I thought they deserved their own. They are very handsome birds and sometimes, when they pose, you think they just know it.

Of course, the “cock” in cockatoo does not really derive from cocksure. Instead, cockatoo is a derivative of the Indonesian name kaka(k)tua. [The cock in cocksure is a euphemism for God according to Google.]

As well as the posers, I also got some good shots of cockatoos eating. They can actually be pests and a flock of cockatoos can (apparently) strip a fruit tree in a few hours - not so fun if that tree is in your garden or farm!

Winter is coming...

…Down Under, at least.

UNSW sunset

The UNSW campus may not be the most beautiful in the world but it does a good job with sunsets.

Beware of fusion when drying your face with a hand-drier

The hand-dryer in the bathroom of a restaurant we went to recently:

I’m not sure what “fusion” is but it sounds scary. (The drier wasn’t strong enough to make be believe it was nuclear powered.) Who knew it could be so DANGEROUS! (Personally, I close my eyes if I ever stick my face it hot air but maybe that's just me.)

It may have been Australian made but I am not convinced that it was Australian proof-read.

New Zealand annexed by IGA for Australia

It appears that Putin is not the only one with a greedy eye on a smaller neighbour:

The power of iPhone HDR mode

HDR mode was added to the iPhone camera back with iOS 4.1 but being less tech-savvy than I would like these days, I somehow managed to overlook it until quite recently. Last week, we took a holiday in Tasmania, providing some good opportunities to put it through its paces and I must say that I am impressed!

HDR stands for High Dynamic Range and takes three photos at different exposures before intelligently combining them. Sometimes it makes no difference. (Probably often but I only use it when I think it might help.) Sometimes, though the difference is quite dramatic as the following examples show. (Left, normal; Right, HDR.)

An already impressive camera, made even better.

My first wild wallaby

Over the weekend, I was at Lorne for the 20th APS Lorne Proteomics Symposium. It’s a lovely spot for a conference, and the schedule always includes some free time in the afternoon. On the friday, I took advantage of this and went for a walk on the nearby Tramway track.

I was attracted by the (somewhat optimistic) hope of seeing an Echidna, possibly my favourite animal of all, but instead got my first wild wallaby on the trail:

And some kangaroos:

Indeed, it was a good day for nature, with a seal having fun by the pier and some cockatoos strutting their stuff. (Galahs too, for all those Alf Stewart fans.)

No echidna, sadly. Maybe next time. (More pics here.)

An unexpected visitor

As well as cool reptiles, Australia also has some interesting insects that are not found in the UK. One of them paid us a visit on Saturday night: a mantis of some sort.

I'm not sure what species it was, and therefore whether it was technically a "praying mantis" or not. Hopefully, it was a preying mantis and will despatch a few of our less appreciated insect visitors, i.e. cockroaches!

It didn’t come into the house, which is a good thing because the cats seemed super-interested! Indeed, it was Arthur who drew our attention to it, spotting it on one of the outdoor chairs in the dark.

I went out to take a few pictures and it obligingly wandered over to the door to give the kitties a closer look.

Here be (water) dragons!

One of the great things about living in Sydney is that you do not need to venture far from the city to find little pockets of National Park and bush tracks, where you can take a stroll away from the hustle and bustle. One such pocket is the headland at Shelly Beach, in Manly.

Last Friday, I took advantage of a day off to pay Shelly Beach a visit, and stumbled across this guy (or gal) on the headland:

To be honest, I almost stumbled on him! He was good enough to hang around and pose for some close-ups. (A much larger one scared the bejaysus out of me when it bolted into the bush a little later!)

Judging from the signs up in the area, (s)he is an Eastern water dragon. I've never really noticed such prominent ear openings on lizards before.

The UK has only 6 native reptile species, so it’s always a treat to see them. (Until, I suspect, I stumble across a venomous snake!) Fantastic creatures!

A couple more photos here.

Happy New Year!

Sculpture by the sea is back

We moved to Sydney just over a year ago and one of the first things we discovered was Sculpture by the sea 2013, an annual free public arts event in which one hundred or so artists create sculptures on the eastern coast from Bondi Beach to Tamarama Beach.

Even without the sculptures, the Coogee to Bondi coastal walk is an impressive piece of coastline and we are lucky to have it on our doorstep. The sculptures really add another dimension, especially the ones that make use of the terrain as part of the art. I’ve not yet seen all of the 2014 offerings, but some of my favourites have this element, including a small army of giant ants and some strange tentacled beasts, draped over the rocks.

Another thing I really like is the use of materials by some of the sculptures. The giant tentacular monster, for example, is made from thousands of bottle tops (left). There may well have been an environmental statement here too, about the amount of plastic (and plastic bottles specifically) that wash up on beaches. There were also some fantastic wooden birds made from old bits of furniture etc.

Another material that always seems popular is super shiny metal, which reflects the viewer, landscape and/or bits of the art itself in interesting ways. Last year, for example, there were some invisible dogs on the beach. This year, the sculptures included some shiny metal cylinders that mirrored flat discs into surprisingly three dimensional images.

It was a glorious weekend for the most part and so the coastal walk sections were predictably crammed with people. If you have the opportunity (as we did last year) to go off-peak, it is highly recommended. I’m already looking forward to going back and seeing what I missed the first time around. More photos on Google+.

What do you get if you cross a dead cockroach with a bunch of ants?

After 24 hours, not a lot…

The fabulous pom-pom crab!

Every now and then, something comes along that just needs to be re-blogged. I give you, The fabulous pom-pom crab!:

h/t: @JohnRHutchinson via WEIT. (Original source unknown.)

Happy New Year, World!

Photo © my lovely wife.

Merry Christmas everyone!

I hope you all have a great festive season (whatever your particular celebration) and get things you like, even if it is only a plastic drinking straw… (Best cat toy ever!)

And if the weather outside turns frightful, then find somewhere warm and snug to see things out.

(Another Google auto-awesome effort!)