Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Nature Notes ~ The Urge to Reproduce


Springtime engenders thoughts of love or at least of continuing
the species. This friendly huntsman female, resident in my
bedroom, is heavy with young. Soon she will produce more than
100 live babies as small as pin heads and will expire. Her life's
work will be done and I shall miss her protective presence.


To all those of you who worry about my huntsman in the
bedroom: huntsmen do not spin webs, just as their name
suggests, they hunt.They are fast runners and can jump 1'
in any direction on a vertical wall. I have had one run across
my face as i slept which was not particularly pleasant but at
least I had no mosquito bite that night. One must be grateful
for small mercies!

The swallows in my yet to be studio are sitting on eggs but
this one at a friend's place is busy reinforcing her nest from
last year


while this cheeky starling is gathering material to augment
his/hers.


In my mountain garden I came upon this little family tidying
up my gravel yard.

Look ma, she's looking at us . . .


never mind dear, she's all right, probably out to smell the roses.


I'll just nip off while ma's not looking . . .


oooh, its scary out there in the bush by yourself . . .


I wasn't really scared, the milk bar is open, I only came back
for a drink.



All photos enlarge.

Thanks to Michelle of Rambling Woods for hosting this meme.
Click on the Logo to join in or just to see what changes are
happening in other places.

13 comments:

  1. I would dearly love to be able to go out into our backyard and be able to see a Mother Kangaroo and her little one! How delightful! Love your photos and your post as always, Arija! Take care and enjoy!

    Sylvia

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love that you let your spider stay and not kill her. I leave the house spiders where they are now as I am no longer afraid. Oh that I wish I could come and visit you and 3 other internet friends I have who live in your country...You are the most warm and friendly folks......hugs...Michelle

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hallo Arija,

    schön, wenn das Jahr mit seiner Vielfallt wieder startet, leider verschwinden aber auch immer wieder Dinge weil wir der Natur keinen Raum mehr lassen. Das wird auch im weiten Australien so sein.

    Im nächsten Frühjahr werde ich die 250 Linden in meinem Lieblingspark Park vermissen, die Bienen und Vögel auch Ich habe Wut im Bauch aber es ist wie immer, man kann sich nicht gegen die Mächtigen wehren.

    Hier zwei Links damit du siehst, was geschehen ist.

    http://www.wa.de/nachrichten/hamm/stadt-hamm/baeume-ostring-werden-gefaellt-998064.html


    http://www.wa.de/nachrichten/hamm/bezirk-hamm-mitte/ostring-linden-werden-dienstag-gefaellt-996647.html

    Grüsse Hartmut

    ReplyDelete
  4. Mike is worried about you having 100s of baby spiders running around in your bedroom.

    I love watching spring arrive there while turning towards winter. I want to enjoy perpetual spring, summer, fall and leave out winter. Hmmm.... maybe another trip south of the equator somewhere. ;)

    LOVE the roos!

    ReplyDelete
  5. This brings it home to us how huge the world is.
    Your season just starting, ours just finishing and us shivering :-)

    ReplyDelete
  6. What a great post about your animals springtime activity. I envy you your kangaroos. I have never seen any sizable spiders inside but I see the cobwebs so I know I have small ones at the very least. The larger ones I usually see in their webs outside in the summer.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Love the Kangaroos images and I really, really love the top Swallow image, but you are much braver than I to allow the spider into your residence. I catch them and move them far, far away from me;)

    ReplyDelete
  8. I think it's wonderful that you a;;ow the spider to freely roam. Maybe one of her offspring will continue in her mother's eight-legged footsteps.

    I cannot imagine seeing kangaroos in my backyard. What an interesting surprise!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Real kangaroos! I think I've only seen them in the zoo.

    Nice that your spider helps out with mosquitoes. Now that's my kind of repellent.

    ReplyDelete
  10. It's Kanga and Baby Roo! Ohhhh!

    Arachnophobe that I am, I think I'd prefer mosquito bites to an eight legged face crawler.

    Hello, dear Arija! Hope you are enjoying the warming weather.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Your Huntsman spider is obviously helpful:-) I can't imagine seeing kangaroos in the garden - how entertaining!

    ReplyDelete
  12. what wonderful photos, specially the last one!

    ReplyDelete