31 October 2005

Poker Machine Art II



More poker machine art, from the County Clare Hotel Sydney.

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Sydney Harbour Bridge Sunset



What I've left behind; Sunset while crossing the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Winter 2004.

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30 October 2005

Lichens



Lichen on rocks, NSW south coast.

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Poker machine art

Poker machine art, County Clare Hotel, Broadway, Sydney.






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29 October 2005

Tent Spider



This is probably a tent spider (as close as I can tell from the Qld Museum spider website). We've got quite a colony of these in one of the plants in the backyard. This is a medium sized one. They are very pretty, coloured, stripey spiders.

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Kookaburra





This is 'Cookie' a member of the kookaburra family whose territory includes our backyard. Cookie's mate likes to show off his hunting prowess by flying up to a tree and visibly parading his latest catch for us to admire. We once saw him with a blue tongue lizard, nearly the size of himself. I love the way that kookaburras wait silently for up to an hour, patiently watching for the signs of a lizard betraying itself with its movements on the ground.

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28 October 2005

Golden Orb Weaver



This Golden Orb Weaver spider set up residence on our back deck a couple of weeks ago. The other day it caught a large beetle and ate it in only a few hours - now it's much fatter than pictured here. Don't worry, these spiders are common and harmless.

Update: After she got fat on the beetle, a small male turned up and spent the next week in the web with her (the male is tiny compared to the female). Last night (Sun 6th Nov) she started climbing around our balcony - we were very curious what she was doing and thought she was looking to move to a new location. But this morning we found still in her web - much skinnier, even skinnier than pictured here! She had laid a marvellous big golden webb'd eggsack up underneath the gutter. Baby spiders on the way! Lets hope she catches another big beetle to make her fat again.

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Yo yo the Grey Butcherbird



This is one of the two Grey Butcherbirds that hang around in our back garden. We call them both "Yo-yo" after the various calls they make. One is shy and retiring and the other - seen here - is as bold as brass. From their colourings (more buff than grey), we think the two butcherbirds are juveniles. There are also some Pied Butcherbirds in the area, they sing absolutely beautifully in the early morning. However they keep their distance. Because of the butcherbirds though, we can't leave the budgerigars unattended in their cage out on the back deck - Butcherbirds are predators of nestlings (look at that big sharp hooked beak) and a captive budgie would make a tasty snack.

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Urban Chicks



Monday afternoon we found this chicken browsing by the side of street near our house in Auchenflower. She's a very cute chicken.

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