Those of us who carry a camera privilege sight over all the senses and, come to think of it, everyone who reads this photographic essay also privileges sight. It’s buried in our language. We are the “clear-sighted”. For us to be “out of sight” is to be “out of mind”. Indeed, as Shelley said, “where eyes are shut, nothing can be seen”.
But I am going to ask you to go further today! Most know that I am, amongst many descriptive, a “birdwatcher”, another term that privileges sight! Most who have been “birdwatching with me will also know I am more of a bird-listener”, attuned to the merest sound coming out of that bush, be it the tiny chirp of a Beautiful Firetail (yesterday, twice) or the loud squawk of the recently-arrived Channel-billed Cuckoo (on September 1st). So, please, after you read the following just close your eyes for a moment and imagine the trill of a Fan-tailed Cuckoo, the warbling of a Grey Shrike-thrush, the screech of a flock of Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoos as they move from one location to another! All were present today. Those, and more, and the soundscape was all the richer for their presence!
But I also want you to touch. No, not Prickly Moses, now almost all its flowers over! But who cannot but touch, even fondle, Persoonia pinifolia when one passes?
And I want you to smell! Yes, crush a few leaves of that Prostanthera and take a whiff! It’s heady stuff!
Ok, you can also taste! There must surely be a few berries left on that Leptomeria acida!
Now, they are the “five senses”. However, as I headed out today, I had another sense or two: of anticipation with what I might discover; of dread with what I might hear at 11.00am after I emerged from my little slice of solitude.
So let us head out into that solitude with anticipation and use all the senses, even if we are privileging sight as we travel.
Our Natural World 