Friday, April 5, 2013

Excitement?

Well Tonight Deb and I are in Kingaroy in QLD staying with E, our eldest.

E graduated with her Masters in Speech Pathology last year and is now working to support kids with speech problems.

First up I was cleaning these fellows out of her garage.
 
Redbacks (Latrodectus hasseltii) are one of our more dangerous spiders, but since the development of antivenom in 1956 they haven't caused any deaths. They don't bother me (as long as I know they are there). But poor E is somewhat of an arachnophobe, so she saved them for me to move.

This afternoon E took me to the nearby  Coomba falls as a reward. I managed a few piccies I was happy with.

Then finally as we were heading back to E's I pulled the car over to attempt some shots of this Wedge-tailed Eagle (Aquila audax)

5 comments:

Linda G. said...

Ew. I'm with E on the spiders. *shudder*

But your other pics are gorgeous, as usual. :)

mshatch said...

yeah, that spider made me feel a little sick. Love the waterfall though :)

Susan Flett Swiderski said...

Your pictures are gorgeous, as always. LOVE the waterfalls and the eagle. That spider reminds me of our black widow spider.

Al said...

Thanks guys.

Susan - yes our Redback is a "widow" spider and is a close relative of your black widow.

Kathleen Jones said...

Loved the close-up of the spider, though not sure I'd want to get that close in reality! Got bitten by a white-tail in NZ once, which was nastier than I expected, and once looked a tunnel spider in the eye in Oz. Here at the mill we have cave spiders that have migrated up from further south in Europe - strange creatures that live in the cellar and hang their egg sacs from the ceiling like table tennis balls (almost as big!). They are really beautiful, with long, articulated, tortoiseshell legs. Have tried to photograph but they don't like light and run away as soon as you open the door.