Nature Photography (Formally Spring is in the Air)

[triceratops83]

You know, maybe I should change the sign...

I double-dare ya.

It seems lately I don't even need to leave the house to photograph animals. Here's a Green Tree Frog that I encountered several nights in a row. I eventually got the idea to grab it and place it on the staircase, so I could quote that "Halfway Down the Stairs" song from the Muppets, but I never saw it after that.


Another day I was getting ready for work and felt something odd when I put my shoes on, so I shook it out and this poor little skink falls to the floor. Funnily enough I had noticed it run into my bedroom earlier, and after I photographed it it ran straight back in there, probably looking for more footwear.


This time I was sweeping the floor - every time I mow the lawn grass and dirt blows into the house, it's a nightmare to keep clean. Anyway, a young Magpie just marches in the door and straight past me into the kitchen and starts picking through the mess I just swept in there. Oddly, it wasn't bothered by my sweeping but got upset when I reached up on top of the fridge to get some bread and tried to fly out the closed window, but then just waited on the counter while I opened it.

[Gwangi]

There are places in the world where I would think shaking out your shoes is standard practice, Australia is one of those places. It's nice when you don't have to work to find wildlife though!

[triceratops83]

There are places in the world where I would think shaking out your shoes is standard practice, Australia is one of those places. It's nice when you don't have to work to find wildlife though!

Yeah, I really should make the effort to do so. There's plenty of dangerous spiders and we've even had large centipedes in the house, which would be a particularly nasty thing to have in one's clothes. Centipedes can crawl up the wall, too, though I don't know how they manage it with their pointy feet. There's no reason why scorpions wouldn't be found around here, but honestly I've never seen one in the wild.

[Halichoeres]

When I was little a house I lived in in Arizona somehow got absolutely overrun with scorpions, so I learned very early to shake out my shoes. Now I live in a 7th floor apartment in a city, but I still check my shoes.

Anyway, your visitors are much nicer!

[triceratops83]

When I was little a house I lived in in Arizona somehow got absolutely overrun with scorpions, so I learned very early to shake out my shoes. Now I live in a 7th floor apartment in a city, but I still check my shoes.

Anyway, your visitors are much nicer!

Were they dangerous scorpions? One way we're lucky here in Australia is that none of our scorpions are deadly.

[Halichoeres]

When I was little a house I lived in in Arizona somehow got absolutely overrun with scorpions, so I learned very early to shake out my shoes. Now I live in a 7th floor apartment in a city, but I still check my shoes.

Anyway, your visitors are much nicer!

Were they dangerous scorpions? One way we're lucky here in Australia is that none of our scorpions are deadly.

In theory they could be dangerous to an infant, and there was one in the house at the time. But generally their sting is only extremely painful (so I'm told, I have managed to avoid it).

[bmathison1972]

When I was little a house I lived in in Arizona somehow got absolutely overrun with scorpions, so I learned very early to shake out my shoes. Now I live in a 7th floor apartment in a city, but I still check my shoes.

Anyway, your visitors are much nicer!

Not sure where you lived, but in the Tempe area where I am from, urbanization has created pockets of areas that have higher populations of scorpions. The last house I lived in before I left the state was in one of those hot spots. I would find Centroides (one of the nasty little ones) a couple times a year in the house...

[triceratops83]

While we're on the subject of bitey things, here's one of the centipedes I was talking about.



And as you can see, I quite like centipedes.

[Halichoeres]

That is commitment! They are very cool animals. I'd see them from time to time under the porch.

[triceratops83]

That is commitment! They are very cool animals. I'd see them from time to time under the porch.

They're hard to photograph because they don't keep still, this one was zooming around poking its head into every nook and cranny looking for prey.

Here's another bitey thing, a couple of Green (Weaver) Ants. People say their bites are really painful, but I think they're more irritating than painful. They don't sting like a wasp or Bull Ant, just bite a hole in you and spray in formic acid. You can get revenge on them in any case - they're edible, a kind of citrusy tang.


A Bush Stone-Curlew. They're nocturnal and spend their days hiding under trees. Between their wailing, the cackling of fruit bats and the screeching of possums, the nights here can sound really eerie.


A flock of Cattle Egrets at dusk.

[Halichoeres]

I don't think I knew your bats cackled! I guess it shouldn't surprise me, but I just hadn't thought about it. Have you ever used the ants to jazz up some tea?

[triceratops83]

I don't think I knew your bats cackled! I guess it shouldn't surprise me, but I just hadn't thought about it. Have you ever used the ants to jazz up some tea?

Fruit bats are the only native animal I detest. We have Mango Trees in our back yard but most of the mangoes have one bite taken out of them from their disease ridden jaws and left to rot on the ground. We don't have rabies in Australia but flying foxes have a similar lethal virus. So whenever I hear that cackling I know fruit is being wasted.

Ha! I'm actually not in the habit of making a meal out of bugs, but funny you should mention that, because every morning when I make my coffee I have to run the faucet for a while because regular little black sugar ants somehow get in there. I don't know why they bother because we get plenty of morning dew, you'd think they'd get their moisture that way.

[Halichoeres]

Fruit bats, the Ramona Quimby of the outback.

[Dusty Wren]

Fruit bats, the Ramona Quimby of the outback.

Holy crap, that's a deep cut. I was not expecting to run into a Ramona Quimby reference this Saturday morning, but I wanted to let you know I see it and appreciate it.

[Halichoeres]

Fruit bats, the Ramona Quimby of the outback.

Holy crap, that's a deep cut. I was not expecting to run into a Ramona Quimby reference this Saturday morning, but I wanted to let you know I see it and appreciate it.

Ha ha, I'm glad someone got it. I guess you're right it's kind of a deep cut. For anyone mystified, here's a quick summary of the story I'm referencing: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Funny/RamonaQuimby

[BlueKrono]

Fruit bats, the Ramona Quimby of the outback.

Holy crap, that's a deep cut. I was not expecting to run into a Ramona Quimby reference this Saturday morning, but I wanted to let you know I see it and appreciate it.

Ha ha, I'm glad someone got it. I guess you're right it's kind of a deep cut. For anyone mystified, here's a quick summary of the story I'm referencing: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Funny/RamonaQuimby

Thanks, I was so lost.