Getting Down under » Pictures

Redback Spiders catch and eat snakes – Really?

Mark — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 09:48:21 +0000

I was having a little bit of banter with an Australian work colleague of mine the other day.

Having found another Redback spider in the back garden a couple of weeks ago I’ve found myself becoming a little laid back with the frequency of these near-death encounters

Poking the red back with a stick, I found the thing quite unaggressive, a life saving move for this little Arthropod as I decided to move it out of harms way instead of introducing the thing to a couple of litres of Spider spray!

“You should have just squashed it” quaffed my Aussie work colleague â€œRedbacks have been known to eat snakes and other stuff you know? You’d best watch out for the cat!

Two days later she sends me an email titled “The Red Back spider of Australia” with the below text and attachments:

Don’t underestimate a Red-back.

An office receptionist got the shock of her life when she found a 14cm long snake entangled in the web of a deadly spider.

Tania Robertson, a receptionist at an electrical firm, came in to work on Tuesday and spotted the strange sight next to a desk in her office.

A snake, which had obviously died from the spider’s poisonous bite, was off the ground and caught up in the web.

Leon Lotz of the arachnology department at the National Museum said it was only the second time that he had heard of a snake getting caught in a spider’s web.

It is believed the snake got caught in the web on Monday night. But it did not take the spider long to bite it.

A red mark on the snake’s stomach was evidence of where the spider had started eating it.

Throughout Tuesday, the spider checked on her prey, but on Wednesday she rolled it up and started spinning a web around it. She also kept lifting it higher off the ground, while continually snacking on it.

Even a fly that accidentally landed on the snake was chased off aggressively…….

Gulp!

Thankfully, since doing a little research on this story (to prove my work colleague wrong more than anything) I’ve been able to confirm that this particular story is NOT about a redback spider.

It is in fact about a different species found in South Africa called the Brown Button spider which I recon sounds kinda cute

So in an effort to help alleviate some of the fears you may have if you’ve received a similar email in your inbox, read on:

Firstly, although some have questioned the authenticity of the photographs, they are in fact genuine (sorry)!

The description of the incident in the message is an abridged version of an article first published by South African online news outlet, News24 in February 2004. The article notes:

Bloemfontein – An office receptionist got the shock of her life earlier this week when she found a 14cm long Aurora house snake entangled in the web of a deadly spider.

Tania Robertson, a receptionist at an electrical firm in Bloemfontein, came in to work on Tuesday and spotted the strange sight next to a desk in her office.

The snake, which had obviously died from the spider’s poisonous bite, was off the ground and caught up in the web.

Leon Lotz of the arachnology department at the National Museum immediately identified the spider as a female brown button spider.

According to a follow-up article on News24, the spider and what remained of the snake were later relocated to the National Museum:

Bloemfontein – The spider that had the country talking after it caught and devoured a snake, found a new home on Friday.

Tania Robertson, a Bloemfontein secretary, was very relieved to get rid of her unwanted office mate.

Leon Lotz of the department of arachnology at the National Museum in the city is now the proud owner of the poisonous button spider and what’s left of the Aurora house snake.

Obviously, the version of the story that I received in my email omits useful information such as the location!

Also, because of the distinctive red markings which are shared by the Africa’s Brown Button spider, Australia’s Redback spider and America’s Black Widow spider. A number of different versions of this email are kicking around.

In this instance, this specific commentator misidentified the spider in the photographs as a Redback and therefore falsely assumed that the snake’s demise occurred in Australia.

I still think it might be time to restock the spider spray though!

Shell Beach – Monkey Mia

Mark — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 03:00:37 +0000

I thought I would save the last entry in the recent series of Blog entries following our Western Australia Road trip to Shell Beach.

Shell beach, just a few Kilometres south of Monkey Mia Dolphin Resort is an amazing place.

From a distance the beach looks like any other ‘amazingly beautiful’ tropical beach with clean white sands and the glimmer of the warm turquoise green Indian Ocean on the horizon. A sight pretty typical to the area.

The thing that makes Shell beach different is the fact that it’s not sand that makes the beach so white but shells!

Shell beach gets its name from the Billions of tiny white ‘Coquina Bivalve‘ sea shells also known as Cardiid Cockles which form a snow white stretch of beach approximately 110km long.

An amazing and very unusual occurrence and apparently one of only two such beaches in the world.

The shells are mined under special license nowadays for production of calcium for poultry feed and exotic mulch for gardens and planters (there’s plenty going spare) In the early years of Denham, blocks of the solidified shell deposits were also mined and used as materials in building constructions.

As the images below show. The beach truly is breath taking. I’ve also attached a few images of some of the local signs which help explain a little more about the make-up and history of the area.

I hope you enjoyed the photos. I’m sure our mini road trip ‘up north’ will be the first of many to come. As always, we’ll post more pictures to wet your appetite (and to keep you going during what can often be a difficult journey down under) as and when we can

Monkey Mia Dolphins – Enjoying the Monkey Mia Dolphin Resort

Mark — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 03:00:22 +0000

Once we had decided to embark on our Road trip around western Australia, we had two options.

Option one: head down south towards the wine regions of Margaret River where we would spend the week touring the local wineries amongst beautiful landscapes, getting slowly drunker by the day OR

Option two: travel north to see some dolphins.

Despite the draw of a plentiful supply of cheap Western Australian wine, we had two extra people to consider. The Kids, so option one it was and what a good decision it was to.

Monkey Mia is located midway up the West Australian Coastline, approx 850 kilometres from Perth. It sits in the middle of Shark Bay which is a World Heritage Area.

We stayed at the Monkey Mia Dolphin Resort for two days which was a welcome relief to. After the previous days of intensive driving we were all pretty ready for a couple of days off.

Monkey Mia is one of the more unusual place names I’ve come across. Apparently Mia is the Aboriginal term for home or shelter, while the Monkey part of the name is allegedly derived from a pearling boat called Monkey that anchored at the now Monkey Mia in the late 19th century, during the days when pearling was an industry in the region.

It’s also been suggested that the origin of the name Monkey Mia could also be the pet monkeys owned by early Malay pearlers who camped at the location. All I know is that it’s a truly beautiful place.

Monkey Mia is famed for the numerous bottlenose dolphins and that is exactly what we came to see.

The wild dolphins visit ‘dolphin beach‘ 3 – 4 times a day and interact with the humans at the beach. They are part of a pod of around 300 wild dolphins that live in the bay.

The dolphins have been visiting the beach since 1964 when a lady from one of the near-by fishing camps befriended the dolphins, regularly feeding them.

Generations of wild dolphins have enjoyed the regular human contact which has now become a part of their daily lives although it’s now closely governed by the DEC (The Department of Environment and Conservation) who ensure the dolphins are treated in a way that will not adversely effect them.

These measure include things such as as feeding the dolphins a maximum of 25% of their daily food requirement (so the dolphins continue to hunt for fish and do not become reliant on the humans giving the dolphins food).

The baby dolphins are never fed when they visit with their mothers to ensure that they learn how to hunt and become self sufficient prior to receiving human handouts.

Physical contact with the dolphins is also not allowed (by the rangers who facilitate each feeding session), not to say that a dolphin can’t still swim so close that it would brush up against your legs!

If you were swimming outside of the presentation area you could come face-to-face with a dolphin to. However the rangers simply don’t want people reaching out and touching the dolphins. A little over kill in my opinion but in some respects it makes sense. Dolphins have teeth but touching them could also cause the dolphins more harm than good in the long term.

It was great to share the Monkey Mia experience with our kids. Watching Junior number 1 (who is now 6) standing there in the turquoise green waters of the Indian ocean whilst he had a couple of wild dolphins swimming around his ankles is a memory I will treasure forever. It’s certainly something I’d never thought I’d be doing when he was born in the bleak grimness of the UK all those years ago!

Junior number 2 (now just over 1 years old) also enjoyed the experience although if the truth be known she did seem a little more interested in grabbing my camera then watching the dolphins. Much in the same way that she was more fascinated with the paper than the presents this Christmas!

Whilst at the resort we also (somehow) managed to befriend an emu with its two younger chicks (big chicks at that). Monkey Mia resort has a number of wild emu’s that also choose to call the resort their home.

They roam throughout the resort picking at scraps and generally looking quite sweaty. The adult would easily stand at my chest height (and I’m over two meters tall) and it’s big beady eyes kinda freaked me out a little. I’m sure it’s mother still loved it though!

Anyway, onto some pictures:

Our final post in this mini series will be on Shell Beach which we’ll post tomorrow.

Wild Budgies and Zebra Finches – Australias local pet shop

Mark — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 03:00:42 +0000

Since arriving down under I’ve already written about the wonders of the bird life here in Western Australia.

Coming from Northern England, the most exotic birds we saw were the pigeons we’d often see waddling around. The poor things normally had a toe missing or stumpy foot due to a close call with a piece of rubbish thrown away by one of the local yobs to!

I was pretty surprised to see this little collection of Birds sat in a couple of trees near one of the petrol stations we pulled into during our road trip.

If you were a pet store owner with a large net I’m sure you could have a field day. There were literally hundreds of Budgerigars and Zebra Finches. Birds I’d only ever seen before in a Pet store back home.

The Budgies here in their natural-habitats of Australia are noticeably smaller than those in captivity. Whether that’s down to diet, breeding or what I’m not to sure but they all seemed pretty happy chilling out in the shade of this tree.

Budgerigars are apparently nomadic birds found in open habitats, primarily in Australian scrub land, open woodland and grassland. The birds are normally found in small flocks, but can form very large flocks under favourable conditions.

The species is extremely nomadic and the movement of the flocks is tied to the availability of food and water. Drought can drive flocks into more wooded habitat or coastal areas, I’ve still to see any in Quinns Rocks though!

The other birds you’ll see in this photo chilling out with the Budgies are Zebra finches.

These cute little birds with their easily recognised ‘beep beep’ type song are also a popular bird of choice for aviaries around the world (including the UK).

Doing a little research, I’ve since found out that the Zebra Finch is the most common and familiar finch of Central Australia and ranges over most of the continent, avoiding only the cool moist south and the tropical far north. You learn something new every day hey!

Dolphins and Emu’s to follow tomorrow!

Large open spaces – the remoteness of Western Australia

Mark — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 04:10:31 +0000

As I mentioned yesterday, we travelled quite some distance during our road trip, 4449 kilometres to be exact and I have to say, I have never been so awe struck by the vastness of the place that we now call home.

The reality of the sheer size of Australia first struck home when I had to fly from Sydney to Perth on Business a year or so ago. The flight takes you from one side of the country to the other and (dependent on which way the wind is blowing) takes in the region of five hours

Yes, five hours people! Five hours flying in a plane over the same vast landscape. Absolutely amazing!

Driving through Western Australia was an altogether different and frankly, more amazing experience. I’d read stories about the remoteness of Australia’s roads but never fully appreciated how vast and remote some of these roads would actually be, some of them appeared to go on forever.

During our journeys, it wasn’t unusual to not see another single car or vehicle for 10 – 15 minutes at a time. There was just nothing else but mile after mile of endless tarmac.

Keep in mind that we were driving a Motor Home to, not some off road 4 x 4 vehicle. This meant that we were always driving on what you’d consider a pretty normal (and well used) road. We were driving alone for a large part of the journey and although the isolation was kind of unnerving at times , it was a new and awe inspiring experience at others.

I have to say, I was glad to be driving in the relative comfort of a motor home though. On a couple of days the temperature outside hit nearly 45 Celsius! We were literally driving through desert for a large part of the journey and we had two kids on board.

When travelling any distance in the more remote parts of Australia it’s always advisable to take some drinking water with you. In our camper van, we had a 200 litre tank, a fridge, toilet, shower, and shelter. If we broke down (which thankfully we didn’t) we’d have been OK for a week. Assuming of course that we weren’t rescued by the Western Australia equivalent of Mick Taylor of Wolf Creek fame.

One thing we found that we had to keep a close eye on was fuel. Unlike good old Blighty where Petrol stations and Service Stations are easily found every couple of miles. Here in the more remote areas of Western Australia you can travel over 200 Kilometres between petrol stations!

One such instance when this proved almost a little to problematic for us is when I decided that I should be OK to drive past one Petrol Station as I still had over half a tank of diesel! Nearly two hours later, the petrol warning light was on and we were still 60kms from the next Petrol station.

Thankfully we managed to make it to the Station on fumes. Even though we were paying the remote premium on the fuel I was filling the tank with (remote Petrol stations often charge between 20 – 50% more for their fuel) I was happy for every single drop.

They say a picture speaks a thousand words so I’ll leave you for now with the images below. It’s a big place isn’t it!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Mark — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 00:46:11 +0000

Well this is our third Christmas since we arrived down under and the family and I are really looking forward to a nice relaxing Christmas day.

The Turkey has been taken out of the freezer and the next 24 hours should hopefully provide sufficient time for the thing to be defrosted.We’ve also got some huge Tiger prawns which will be getting introduced to the barbecue in the next day or so

Junior number one is ultra excited that Santa will be visiting (probably via the air conditioning vents again due to the lack of a Chimney) and Junior number two will likely be trying her hardest to have a nice brown smelly present for Mummy and Daddy first thing tomorrow morning.

The weather forecast for tomorrow is Sunny and a balmy 31 degrees Celsius which is a stark contrast to the delights of the weather we used to enjoy back in the UK.

Speaking of weather. The cloudy sky picture to the left is a picture I took from my front garden this morning. I don’t know if it’s down to a sheer lack of ozone in Australia but the sky’s here are the most amazing vivid blues.

By Aussie Standards (or certainly Western Australian standards) this is a pretty cloudy day but the cloud formations looked pretty cool and I decided to get all Arty and take a picture.

The picture now acts as my desktop wallpaper. I know that many visitors to our site come from less sunny Climates (such as the UK so feel free to do the same.

To set the picture as your desktop, simply click the thumbnail for the full sized version and (in most browsers) right click with your mouse button and select ’select as desktop’ or similar.

I hope you all have a happy and peaceful Christmas and on the basis that I don’t get food poising from poorly defrosted turkey you’ll be hearing more from us very soon

Cheers

Mark

Hillarys boat harbour the Mcnaught comet fireworks and lightening Australia day 2007

Mark — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 01:32:35 +0000

Now, for those of you who visit GDU regularly, you’ll remember the sense of wonder and awe that I managed to capture in my Australia day fireworks photo’s.

OK, perhaps blurry, out of focus snaps might be a better description but you still got the idea.

This morning, an email hit my inbox with the picture attached and I’ve gotta say, the guy who took this photograph did a slightly better job of capturing an Australia Day scene then I did.

As I’ve mentioned before in a previous post; apart from the main Skyworks display on the Perth foreshore that I took snaps of, there were also a number of smaller displays at Freemantle, Hillarys boat harbour and Mindarie.

If you click on the thumbnail to have a look at a larger version of the image (opens in new window), what you’ll see is a picture taken during the fireworks display at Hillarys boat harbour.

The panoramic picture shows people just to the North of Hillarys boat harbour enjoying the display from the beach. You’ll also see the fireworks themselves to the right of the photo, the Mcnaught comet floating through the sky in the centre and just to the right the lightening storm that hit Perth on that very warm and muggy night.

The photograph was taken by a 17 year old Finnish guy by the name of Antti Kemppainen. Many punters have been claiming that the photo is a fake, suggesting that multiple images were taken and then sliced together to create the picture you see here today.

There’s also the view that the photo turned out so well just by sheer luck!

Apparently if your technically savvy enough with your camera, you can lock the shutter on your camera open and then uncover the lens when you want to capture a particular scene.

This can give a long exposure for the comet when the lightning and fireworks were not visible and a shorter exposure to capture the lightning and fireworks and people sitting on the beach.

Sounds a little like to much hard work to me and I’d imagine your reactions would need to be pretty sharp to get such a short exposure using manual means.

With all that said though, I don’t really care. Even if the photo is multiple photos taken at different times and sliced into one big picture, it’s still pretty bloody impressive.

Getting Down under » Pictures

Redback Spiders catch and eat snakes – Really?

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Shell Beach – Monkey Mia

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Monkey Mia Dolphins – Enjoying the Monkey Mia Dolphin Resort

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Wild Budgies and Zebra Finches – Australias local pet shop

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Large open spaces – the remoteness of Western Australia

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Merry Christmas Everyone!

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Hillarys boat harbour the Mcnaught comet fireworks and lightening Australia day 2007

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