Did You Know? Archives - Esther Beaton

Bunya, tree of reconciliation

The Bunya Mountains are the ancestral land of the Wakka Wakka, Jarowair and Barunggam peoples, Queensland, Australia

Reading Time: 2 minutesThe bunya tree is amazing in so many respects and not just because it is a cultural, sacred and emotional icon for both Indigenous and non-indigenous Australians. It has a curious ancient botanical lineage; it was food for the largest ever dinosaurs; today it is devoured by modern animals. Yesterday’s Queenslanders fought vicious wars over […]

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Aboriginal, Australian Geographic, Did You Know?, Habitats, On the Beaton Track, Photography Techniques, Professional Photography, QueenslandAboriginal culture, botany, native food, prehistoric

What the Ranger Revealed

Reading Time: 3 minutesTalking about rocks (well, I was – in the last blog post), our Meetup group had a lucky encounter at one of our recent events. But it didn’t start out that way. Normally I do a reconnaissance before leading people to an obscure location. But this time I thought: oh, I’ve been there before, I’m

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Aboriginal, Did You Know?, Landscape Images, New South Wales, Travel Photographyaboriginal art, aboriginal carvings, geology

Happy Feather’s Day!

Reading Time: < 1 minuteHere’s something to make all fathers think. Be thankful you weren’t born an emu. Your lot in life would have been tending all the eggs – a dozen or more at a time (some even fertilised by rival males!) – no time to lubricate your parched throat and you would suffer dramatic weight loss. And

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Bird Images, Did You Know?, New South Wales, On the Beaton Trackbehavioral ecology, Canberra, eggs, emu, father, feathers, male incubation, Nature photography, nest

Mating Madness

Male Cane toads jump on anything that moves

Reading Time: 3 minutesYou’ve all heard about the rampaging Cane Toads, right? How for the first few decades after introduction they stayed in Queensland? Then suddenly, say about the year 2000, they spread. Like the plague. They even hit the Kimberley in the west and Sydney in the south. One reason they are so rampant in their reproduction

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Australian Geographic, Behind the Scenes, Did You Know?Australian Geographic, Cane Toads, Nature photography, Photography assignment, Queensland, wildlife photography

A Powerful Story (or The One That Got Away)

Reading Time: 3 minutesAs a nature and wildlife photographer I’m outdoors a lot and I often get into scrapes. They make entertaining stories to share on blogs and elsewhere. One time, however, it was my photographic subject that got into one – or almost. I was walking home one cool August night, in the quiet seaside village of

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Did You Know?, Nikon, Threatened species, Wildlife Photographyflash photography, night photography, nocturnal, owls, powerful owl

The Little Flea from Jibbon Lagoon

Reading Time: < 1 minuteWho would have thought that little Jibbon Lagoon would ever have a claim to fame? If you are wondering where you can find this little creature from the black lagoon, Jibbon is at the north end of Royal National Park. Which as you all know is on Sydney’s doorstep. Here’s a photo I

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Did You Know?, Nature Photography

Orchid Fly – New to Science?

Reading Time: < 1 minuteI ran into some orchid hunters on the weekend and instead of doing what I was “supposed” to do, I played hooky and went out into the fields to play with my new friends. It was well worth the effort (fun?) because we may have stumbled on to something new to science. Orchids are some

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Did You Know?, Macro Photographybehavioral ecology, Central Coast, fly pollination, insect photography, macro photography, midge orchid, orchid fly

One Minute with Nature: Cicada’s Summer Song

Reading Time: < 1 minuteNew Year’s Day started out warm – at last. It has been one of the coldest summers anyone can remember. Insects have been low key so it was a delight to find them calling from above my head, as I headed out on my first exploratory bushwalk of the year. This late in the summer

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Did You Know?, New South Walesbushland, cicadas, Floury Baker, insect song, nature, New Year's Day, summer, video

Outback birds take to nesting

Reading Time: < 1 minuteThe Outback when it is wet is amazing. When it floods and takes human lives, and livestock, then it is truly terrible. The damage caused by the recent Queensland floods was so so extreme because it mainly hit the heavily populated coastal towns. Further inland, the Outback towns are used to the river channels breaking

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Bird Images, Did You Know?, On the Beaton Track, OutbackFairy Martins, mud nests, nest theft, nesting, Zebra Finch

Magic happens when you least expect it

Reading Time: < 1 minuteI arrived at Cooper Creek, in South Australia’s Channel Country, in the middle of this year’s unusual rains. The scene I planned to photograph was grey and ordinary. But after spending an hour or two – and after I stopped whinging about the gloomy skies – the real beauty of the scene emerged. To get

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Did You Know?, On the Beaton Track, Outbackbird photography, Cooper Creek, floods, Innaminka