Keep Looking

Darwin Snake-necked Turtle (Chelodina kurrichalpongo), family Chelidae, Fogg Dam Conservation Reserve, NT, Australia

Endemic to the Northern Territory.

Southern Brown Bandicoot (Isoodon obesulus), Eat a tasty nectar from some Banksia, family Paramelidae, order Peramelemorphia, Cranbourne, VIC, Australia

Purple Frog (Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis), female, family Nasikabatrachidae, endemic to the Western Ghats of India

Adult frog described in 2003. The juvenile frog was described in 1917. (Though, of course, the adult frog was known by local people).

This frog spends most of its life underground, and emerges to mate during monsoon rains.

Unlike many burrowing frogs, which emerge to feed above ground, this species feeds on termites underground (as well as feeding above).

Females are more purplish, and males are more brownish (and much smaller).

A female Meadow Bunting (Emberiza cioides) puffed up round on a snowy morning. One of the most familiar birds throughout the year in Karuizawa. This winter, I've often encountered flocks of Rustic buntings, but compared to the Rustic buntings, which rarely let us get close, the Meadow Buntings are a bit more approachable and often perch in conspicuous and low spots, which I find rather interesting.

雪の朝に丸くなったホオジロのメス 軽井沢では一年を通じて最も身近な鳥の一つ。 今冬はカシラダカの群れとよく一緒に出会うが、なかなか近寄らせてくれないカシラダカに比べて、人との距離感が少し近く、低く目立つ位置にとまることも多い気がして、おもしろい。

AKA returetu, roturotu, kārearea and kārerarera, and Pacific azolla.

A floating aquatic fern native to Australia and New Zealand, and possibly as far afield as Japan. It rapidly multiplies to form mats on still or slow-moving water, and gets redder as it ages.

Azolla enjoys an obligate symbiosis with the cyanobacterium Anabaena azollae, which fixes atmospheric oxygen for the plant and can no longer survive away from the fern.

During the Eocene, when the Arctic Ocean was mostly freshwater for roughly 800,000 years, Azolla grew in such gigantic quantities that it sucked enough carbon dioxide out of the air to cause global cooling.

photo by @purrdence​ at Rotorua.

AKA Hebe speciosa, New Zealand hebe, showy hebe, showy-speedwell, and the Māori names titirangi and napuka. 

Like most Hebes, it is native to New Zealand but it can be found in other mild parts of the world where it is grown as an ornamental. Apparently naturalised on cliffs in Ireland, but given it is found coastal cliffs and headlands, low windswept scrub and flaxland in NZ that isn’t surprising.

Tail close-up