Natural wonders

During our wanderings, us prospectors are more fortunate than most, to have the ability to encounter many things in nature that amaze and cause wonderment.
I thought it might be worthwhile to start a thread on that so that we can share some of those things amongst ourselves.
They may be trees, rock formations, landscapes, waterfalls whatever.
I'd like to start off the thread with a tree in a suburban street in Geelong.
It was actually quite scary standing directly underneath the branches knowing that if any fell it would probably be instant death.
PS Also pretty game for the owner of the red car to park there.

Hawkear said:

During our wanderings, us prospectors are more fortunate than most, to have the ability to encounter many things in nature that amaze and cause wonderment.
I thought it might be worthwhile to start a thread on that so that we can share some of those things amongst ourselves.
They may be trees, rock formations, landscapes, waterfalls whatever.
I'd like to start off the thread with a tree in a suburban street in Geelong.
It was actually quite scary standing directly underneath the branches knowing that if any fell it would probably be instant death.
PS Also pretty game for the owner of the red car to park there.
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Good idea Hawkear. We all see things that make us stop and admire, and it can be the tiniest of things.

One of natures balancing acts with a nice quartz filling & Fruit Bat Falls Cape York.

Mr T (Actually a Mrs) My favourite pet at home for about 3 months until I returned her to her natural habitat. She ate crickets out of my hand.
Tarantula - Selenottholus Foelscheri - 140mm feet span.




Two Camels kissing, a formation to the East of Laverton.

Nightjar said:

Mr T (Actually a Mrs) My favourite pet at home for about 3 months until I returned her to her natural habitat. She ate crickets out of my hand.
Tarantula - Selenottholus Foelscheri - 140mm feet span.

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Two Camels kissing, a formation to the East of Laverton.


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Nightjar that's a Natural Wonder I'd rather not experience with respect to Mr T

Working shift work I get to see Mother Nature at her best, and her worst. I always take a moment to admire a beautiful sunrise.

Just received this from the limestone coast SA.

Hawkear said:

During our wanderings, us prospectors are more fortunate than most, to have the ability to encounter many things in nature that amaze and cause wonderment.
I thought it might be worthwhile to start a thread on that so that we can share some of those things amongst ourselves.
They may be trees, rock formations, landscapes, waterfalls whatever.
I'd like to start off the thread with a tree in a suburban street in Geelong.
It was actually quite scary standing directly underneath the branches knowing that if any fell it would probably be instant death.
PS Also pretty game for the owner of the red car to park there.
View attachment 8495

Click to expand...

One thing that never ceases to amaze me is the instinctive knowledge and skill that so-called "dumb lower life forms" possess.
We were panning in a creek in the East Kimberly. A big black and yellow hornet spotted my heap of damp tailings.
It investigated the texture of the damp discarded earth then started looking for a place to build a nest (for want of a better word).
It circled a nearby rock several times then selected a narrow ledge. It hovered over the ledge, whirring its wings vigourously, blowing away all the dust that had gathered there. We could see the dust flying. When the ledge was clean to the satisfaction of the hornet it returned to my discarded mud heap and, rolling up a strip of mud to form a ball, it carried it to the chosen spot and began to build its nest. When we returned some days later the nest, shaped perfectly like a Grecian urn, was completed and sealed off. The hornet would have laid its eggs in the container and have sought out and stung a spider, not killing it but paralysing it into a state of suspended animation. It would have deposited the spider inside the urn as a source of fresh meat for the young when they hatched.
How on earth this "lower life form" knew how to carry out this intricate series of actions is a mystery that defies expanation.

It's called nature and if you take a good look at it one may start to question who is the "lower life form" ?? Good example is take a baby a few hours old and put it in a dam and it will drown as it hasn't been taught to swim, put a rabbit kitten that as yet has not even opened it's eyes in water and it will swim and not drown. So maybe we as the humans ain't so clever after all

Bogger said:

It's called nature and if you take a good look at it one may start to question who is the "lower life form" ?? Good example is take a baby a few hours old and put it in a dam and it will drown as it hasn't been taught to swim, put a rabbit kitten that as yet has not even opened it's eyes in water and it will swim and not drown. So maybe we as the humans ain't so clever after all

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Spot on Bogger we're the idiots when it comes to life form function, maybe that's why the natural wonders seem so amazing As a kid with 20k acres to roam on foot I was more intune with the natural wonders than I've ever been, the commercial world sucks big time

RM personally I think as growing up country or farm one learns about animals before humans. I remember at about 5 years old watching in awe as a cow gave birth to a calf. It was early on a frosty morning and can still see the steam rising from it's body as it came into the world. Still marvel at it to this day and in fact was only several days ago I approached a new born calf and when close enough patted it and as I did so it wagged it's tail like a dog would. Yeah I'm happy to see my days out with nature especially given it's free to any who choose to embrace it

The wonder is that nothing except the very first form (possibly forms) of life evolved from scratch into a successful plant or animal.
Each successive evolutionary generation has been an adaptation of a previous form. I am reminded of that as I lay on my couch nursing a crook back wondering how something that worked so well for me for so long also has such an inherent weakness.
I guess that’s the price of evolution when for bipeds learning to stand and live an upright life a number of years ago from their quadruped ancestors.
As I lay with my back horizontal on my couch maybe I am devolving.

Bogger said:

It's called nature and if you take a good look at it one may start to question who is the "lower life form" ?? Good example is take a baby a few hours old and put it in a dam and it will drown as it hasn't been taught to swim, put a rabbit kitten that as yet has not even opened it's eyes in water and it will swim and not drown. So maybe we as the humans ain't so clever after all

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I agree wholeheartedly. That is why I put "lower life form"in inverted commas.
People have to be taught almost everything but spiders build webs, birds build nests, ants develop underground communities, etc,etc, etc, all without formal education.
It seems that in developing intelligence we lost instinctive knowledge and skill.

Photographed from Litchfield National Park.
lightning and bushfires in the distance.

It was like watching the start of a Star Wars movie Geoff, well done.

Dave's Office said:

It was like watching the start of a Star Wars movie Geoff, well done.

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Sorry I should have made it clear that it was not me who took the images. The authors name is on the top left corner Sean Liang. A member of an astronomy group I belong to.
A lot of us would have seen some beautiful night skies while camping out, but our senses cannot appreciate the slow rotation of the night sky that only Timelapse photography can show.

Yep, the night skies are beautiful coming into winter and the Milky Way

Miss Kay's always saying to me "are your eyes painted on" it is a great post anyway Geoff.

Just something that popped into my Facebook feed today.
The silt jetties of the Mitchell river in Gippsland, Vic as it discharges into the Gippsland lakes (lake King). You can drive the full 8Km length right to the tip of the Southern side.
You can also boat all the way up to Bairnsdale and beyond (a distance of about 20Km).
The Mitchell river silt jetty is now considered the longest in the world after the Mississippi river silt jetty was destroyed in 2005 by cyclone Katrina.
Not far beyond Bairnsdale the Mitchell flows through steeper gold country around Bullumwaal and another major river flowing into lake King, the Tambo, which enters roughly opposite the Mitchell, is auriferous for much of its length.
A great part of the world for some fishing and a little more adventurous prospecting.