DerekMcGinnSounds&photography

From left to right: Bee Orchid Orchis apifera. Greater Butterfly Orchid Planthera chlorantha. Broad Bodied Chaser.
Common Spotted Orchid Dactylorhiza fuschii.

Recently

The way this page works is that the most recently added images are usually right at the bottom.

It is some time since I updated the website, indeed maybe two years!!

I have taken out a lot of material and kept the Western Australian images as I have not been able to return in 2020 and may not be able to do so in 2021 thanks to Covid-19.

Today April 10th 2021 I have uploaded a mixture of local images from the southern shore of the Moray Firth in northern Scotland.

It is now September 10th 2021 so have added a further selection taken since April.

Singing Honeyeater

Another common garden bird

Red Wattle Bird

The largest of the local honeyeaters this is an aggressive defender of its territory and will even attack people and their dogs in season.

Australian Magpie

This is a well know species, during the spring, attacking anything it chooses. So much so that notices are placed in public spaces warning people that they must beware it is "Magpie season" It has been known to blind people as result of pecking them in the eye!!

Corrella

A common species in towns where it may roost in hundreds.

Galah

There very colourful birds are common in towns.

Laughing Lookaburra

One of two species of Kookaburra in Australia but not native to Western Australia to where it was introduced from the eastin the early days of colonisation.

Sooty or Black Oystercatcher

A wading species to be found around estuaries and coasts.

Silver Gulls

The most common gull to be seen in the SW.

Pacific Gull

Arguably the biggest gull in the world and not uncommon around the coast.

Straw Necked Ibis

Not uncommon around Perth city's lakes.

Black necked stilt

A moulting individual

Glossby Ibis

Not uncommon in spring around some lakes.

Purple Swamp Hen

Very common by Lake Herdsman in Perth

Black Swan

After which the Swan River is named.

Rufous Whsitler

A small bush bird with a pleasant whistling song.

White Faced Heron

A dainty inhabitant of shore and lakeside.

Grey Fantail

These little birds often appear to seek you out when you enter their territory.They are well named from their habit of fanning out their tail feathers.

Laughing Dove

These little doves are not uncommon.

Grey Currawong

Member of the crow family.

Thornbill species

I am guessing when I say it is probably the Western Thornbill. These tiny birds seem equivalent to northern hemisphere phylloscopus warblers (Acanthiza is the genus)

Yellow Plumed Honeyeater

A bird I associate with Wandoo woodland.

Willie Wagtail

Equivalent to out northern bird they actually wag their tails rather than bobbing them.

Wood Swallow

Rufous Tree Creeper

The Coalseam River gorge

A find of coal in the early days was never extracted because of the low quality of the coal.

See if you can spot the two Western Grey Kangaroos.

Everlastings

In places like Coalseam the ground is carpetted in various small flowers in Spring if winter rains have been good.

Firewood Banksia

This large group of plants takes its common name from Sir Joseph Banks naturalist on Capt. Cook's first voyage to the eastern seaboard and New Zealand.

Banksia species

This was flowering in early September on the south coast near Bremer Bay.

Royal Hakea

This striking plant was growing in the Fitzgerald River National Park right down on the south coast.

Qualuup Bells

This plant grows in the Park and is named after an early settlement homestead where we stayed.

Western Grey Kangaroo

This female was carrying a joey in her pouch.

From the Summit of West Mount Darren

The Fitzgerald Nat. Park is overlooked by a few small hills not a common feature in Western Australia's SW. It provides very good view of the park looking towards Bremer Bay and the Southern Ocean.

Trigelow Bay

One of many south coast by where Southern Right Whales, amongst others, come to have their young

Fitzgerald River National Park

This huge area extends as far as the eye can see in the evening light.

Spider Orchdis

Of the thousands of plant species to be found in WA the spider Orchids have become a fascination. I cannot tell one from another but they have a particular structure and relationship with fungi and insects which is quite amazing. They belong to the genus Caladenia.
I have not named most of them .

Carousel Spider orchid. Caledenia sp.

White Spider Orchid

Caledenia sp.

Mantis Orchid possibly

Caledenia sp.

Donkey Orchis

Cowslip Orchid

Zebra Orchid

Pink Fairy Orchid

Jug Orchid

I think that is the name but could be wrong. I liked the mosquito but they were pretty ferocious in some locations.

Wreath Lesuchenaultia

This was a plant I had wanted to see for a number of years.
Ironic I should find in after my wife passed away. Usually circular this one was heart shaped!! RIP

The Kessock Bridge

The Kessock Bridge which joins The Black Isle to Inverness across the Inverness Firth in the Highlands of Scotland.

Bow Fiddle Rock

This often-photographed landmark along the southern Moray coast is near the village of Findochty.

Black Guilliemot

I found the first sign that these attractive little seabirds mght be breeding near Portsoy back in the 70s!

Kittiwakes

These dainty gulls have seen their population number much reduced over the last number of years.

Fulmars

These seabirds are related to the albatrosses of the southern hemisphere.

Gannets

These are the largest of our breeding seabirds.

Hovering Gannet

Redshank

AWay from the seabird cliffs the Moray firth os also a great plce to watch shorebirds, or waders. The Redshank is just one ofmany such species that visit the shores.

Curlew

With its long downward curved beak it cann be easily indentified along the Moray coast.

Fisherwife

This beautiful sculpture stands at the harbour of the little coastal town of Nairn. All the small towns along the Moray coast were once the focus of the fishing industry, especially herring. Now virtually all host leisure craft rather than fishing boats.

This one and the next few are the latest additions as at September 2021

Poppy flower not yet open.

Dandelion seed head

Sometimes referred to as a "clock".

Bee on thistle head

I have been concerned at the lack of pollinating insects this year resulting, perhaps, from a cold and late spring.

Poppy in flower

I sewed a small wildflower meadow in the garden and it has proved popular.

Bluebell wood

The wild hyacinths carpet the woodland floors in May

HST crosses the Culloden viaduct over the Nairn valley

I have returned to a childhood interest in trains both real and model!!!

Cornflower in the garden meadow

Grey Heron

Sometimes you get lucky and they stay around to have their picture taken!

The Kessock bridge that links Inverness to the Black Isle

Discovered my phone does panoramas! Slow learner!!

The oil industry in the Cromary Firth

Kessock Bridge at sunrise.

Spent the dawn recording the local nature reserve then the sun came up.

Peacock Butterfly

Redundant Oil rigs

Wild Hyacinth or Bluebell

Female Dotterel

These rare waders return to the high ground of the Cairngorms in the spring.

Bee on flower

Mouse on bird feeder

Don't know how it managed to get on to the feeder as it was suspended. Has to "fly" when leaving!!

I spent a number of weeks in Western Australia which I have visited several times over the last 15 years or so.

Although I have photographed much of the flora and fauna there it is so vast that a permanent residence would be needed to see and photograph it all!

The SWcorner of the state is one of the World's Biodiversity Hotspots but relatively few people, even in Australia, are aware of the fantastic wildlife they have! The reasons for this are several but include its geological history with undisturbed millions of years without either glacial or volcanic activity hence leaching of the soils by preciptation rendering them extremely nutrient poor. This has given rise to a highly adapted flora and hence all the fauna that is ecologically related to that base.

In presenting some of the images made during this visit I have named only a few of the subjects photographed. As there are over 10 thousand differnt species of flowering plant alone it would be impossible for a visitor to begin to remember common names,let alone botanical names. For those that wish to so do I suggest the internet is the best way forward.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic I have been unable to visit WA in 2020 and 2021 so I have left the orchids etc on the pagees above. I have added images made near home during these two years when lockdown periods made getting far from the garden curtailed photography. Some of the images on the website can also be seen on my Facebookpage as Albums. (DBM 10/9/21)