By MIKE GILLAM
Photo © Mike Gillam
Crested pigeons, an overlooked beauty of Alice Springs backyards, revel in life’s basics –warm sun on a frosty winter’s morning, deep shade in the summer, cool fresh drinking water, plentiful grass seed and above all, high summer rain.
They prefer a fine sun shower over the large driving drops of a tropical downpour. As the first drops fall, the crested pigeons assume their rain position, lounging in the leaf litter with one wing raised, often huddled together like a group of synchronised swimmers. After the shower, they preen themselves fastidiously and enjoy the transient sensation of delicious frigidity.
Recently in this series:
A touch of light: cicadas and cuckoos usher in the summer
A touch of light: budgerigars, a postscript
A touch of light: booms, busts and budgerigars
Editor’s note: This series began with Mike Gillam offering to provide an image and a paragraph each week for the duration of the pandemic. As people were asked to retreat to their homes, he would keep them in touch with the wonders of the natural world. The weekly posts evolved into a series of inspiring essays and a wealth of images which the Alice Springs News has been proud to publish. Life’s other demands now require that Mike takes a step back, returning to his original offering.
Mike, you saved the best till last. What a brilliant photo! Congratulations.
These posts have been a major boost to morale as Covid-19 rages here in North America. Godspeed on your next adventure, Mike.
It was wonderful while it lasted. Thank you Mike and Alice Springs News.
Thanks all for your appreciative comments, but you seem to have misunderstood my editor’s note. Mike’s generous offering to readers of the Alice Springs News will continue – but in its original format, one image and a paragraph each week.