Australian Image Originals

29/04/2024

Carole-Anne's photos from Sri Lanka will be a whole coming! Here are a few taken by me in-between taking video:

      Colombo   ||   Kandy   ||   Mannar   ||   Talaimannar   ||   Wilpattu   ||   Gal Oya   ||

26/02/2024

Some more photos from the New Zealand sub-Antarctic Islands

25/02/2024

The Chatham albatross (Thalassarche eremita), also known as the Chatham mollymawk or Chatham Island mollymawk, is a medium-sized black-and-white albatross; it is the smallest of the shy albatross group with a wingspan of 2 metres. It breeds only on The Pyramid, a rock stack in the Chatham Islands, New Zealand, where there are 4,500 pairs.
The Pyramid is 170 metres high but barely 150 metres across, and is the most southwestern piece of land before Antarctica.
Mollymawks are a type of albatross that belong to family Diomedeidae of the order Procellariforms, along with shearwaters, fulmars, storm petrels, and petrels. They have nasal passages that attach to the upper bill called naricorns. Although the nostrils on the albatross are on the sides of the bill. The bills of Procellariforms are also unique in that they are split into between seven and nine h***y plates. Finally, they produce a stomach oil made up of wax esters and triglycerides that is stored in the proventriculus. This is used against predators as well as an energy rich food source for chicks and for the adults during their long flights.[5] They also have a salt gland that is situated above the nasal passage and helps desalinate their bodies, due to the high amount of ocean water that they imbibe. It excretes a high saline solution from their nose.

15/01/2024

Backyard Possum