I think this Golden Orb Weaver is Trichonephila plumipes, sometimes called a Tiger Spider. Its web glows yellow, and the legs are a light orange colour, black at the joints. Big spiders are so impressive! This type is not confined to the tropics, so I hope to see more when travel to the sub-tropics.
There are some 750 different types of pandanus; I have no idea which one I was sketching! I love their aerial prop roots.
Another day, another idyllic swimming hole 😊 September is a great month to visit the tropics. Not too hot, not too wet, not too many mosquitos. No tribulation at all, in fact.
We’re in tropical Far North Queensland, in a national diversity hotspot. Buttress roots, wait-a-while, butterflies, and fan palms abound. Also, gorgeous swimming holes. And crocodiles, though we haven’t seen any of them yet (phew!) But we did find a peppermint stick insect today, so that was really cool!
My son is showing us all his favourite spots. So much beauty to be found here.
Common brushtail possums are the Australian marsupials most often seen by city dwellers, as they can thrive in a wide range of natural and human-modified environments. They are inventive and determined foragers with a liking for kitchen raids, fruit trees, and vegetable gardens, as our Wollongong friends well know!
This baby was in the temporary care of our wildlife rescuer friend when we stayed with her the other night. Pretty darn cute.
A couple of sea lions were relaxing on the river banks while the humans wandered amongst the stalls of Moruya Country Market on Saturday morning.
Australia is famed for its colourful birds, but the little monochrome ones can be just as fascinating. Grey Fantails live across most of Australia. Hyperactive, agile and graceful, they perform rapid aerial acrobatics, constantly splaying out their tail feathers into a fan. They feed on flying insects which they chase out from the edge of shrubs and bushes and snap up mid-air. Cute!
While waiting for our friends to arrive, I sketched the pretty galls on the gum tree by the gate.
I did a bit of an audit on the acacias on my sister’s bush block. I counted five different species, four of which I am pretty confident on the ID. The fifth remains unidentified.
There are almost 1000 species of acacia in Australia!
The Sanctuary at Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve is a large wetlands ecosystem surrounded by bushland that has been protected by a predator-proof fence for around 40 years, creating a refuge for a range of native animals.
We enjoyed seeing the similar-but-different small marsupials, Long-Nosed Potoroos and Southern Brown Bandicoots, free-ranging in the bush. Both have rat-like faces but move in unique ways.
This beetle’s name literally means big mouth fire buttocks. Quite an impressive moniker for a critter that’s only 1cm long. Small but mighty, indeed.
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