An unexpected visitor. 1935.

Here in Australia we have a lot of different types of lizards, big ones and small ones but I think the guy in this photo from 1935 would have to be one of the biggest of them all!

This lizard is a 6ft long Bungarra (Sand Goanna) and can you imagine what was going through the mind of the dog in the background (which looks like a Border collie to me just for sizing purposes) when it wandered up? The dog was tied to the kennel after all which means that escape was not on the cards…. *cue Jaws music*…..

These lizards eat pretty much anything that fits in their mouth, and at this size that means pretty much everything that crosses its path is in danger.

My favourite old newspaper article about lizard was this post, The Mysterious Kumi and after seeing this photo I can readily imagine people believing in reptilian monsters!

I have done a few other posts about lizards over time, most recently about the lizards we came across on our holiday; a grumpy Stumpy Tail, a Jacky Dragon and a sunbather at Silverton.

The West Australian 26 Mar 1935 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article32854347

Unwelcome mail.

The subject of this post is going to be familiar to you Aussies, and Meeks, look away now.

Some weeks ago I did a post about spiders (ok, I’ve done a few but this one in particular) that ended in a conversation with Bluey about Huntsmen spiders and their love of letter boxes. Yesterday I was unlucky enough to find a small one on my mail and I grabbed my camera to fulfil the promise of sharing the horror with her.

Yes, this is a small Huntsman, only about as big as the palm of my hand, there is no way I am getting this close with a camera to a big one. The photo in that case would be less pleasant, taken after I flipped the mail out of the box with a long stick and stomped on everything. Yeah, never post me anything breakable, ok….

Huntsmen are very long-legged spiders and that makes them look scarily big, but as you can see they are also very flat. I expect that this is some sort of special evolutionary trait to assist their unnoticed entry into houses via the collected mail.

C’mon, take me inside….

I admit that I did the girly “eeeek!” because he ran at me as soon as I lifted the mail so I immediately dropped the flyer straight back into the letterbox and slammed the lid.

I suddenly realized I had a blog post just sitting there if I pulled him back out so I went in, got my camera, took a breath and reached in.

Those awful beady eyes….. ick….

He politely stood still while I took a few shots then the Man drove up the driveway, temporarily distracting me. When I turned back the spider was gone.

Bugger. That just means he is still out there looking for a nice warm, dry house. I’m sure he will be back in residence in a few days but this time I have the photo so next time he may well just get the boot…