Birds and Bees and Beetles and Bugs and Butterflies and Bark and a Basket and Bob

... Because they are all B things that I found in my photos and realised I could Bung in here for my B post for ABC Wednesday ... The sort of all vaguely relate to each other (well I say they do, so therefore they do ;-)

Now I just have to find them all again, and upload the B#$^$%^ things to Blogger ... LOL

(I found a few others Besides those I originally was thining of too - so I had to add a couple more words to the title of this post ;-)

I won't be putting in as many photos as I did in the Arachinid one that is Before this one though ... (well ... I don't think I will ... lol)

Btw ... These won't be in the order I mentioned them in the subject line ... most of them might Be in the order I took them, But there might Be some that are not ;-)

First (Because I took this one Back in Febuary and most of the others are a Bit more recent) I have a photo of some tree Bark:



which I think looks wonderful Because the rain has wet the Bark and Brought out the colours.


A grass Basket (Bowl?) that I made early in the year at some basketry/grass sculpture workshop thingy at the museum.



At the same place (Before the Basket I think) I also made a Bird out of grass and sticks But I don't have a decent photo of that ... But I can take one of that later Because I do still have the Bird (I don't still have the Basket - I used it as a Bird's nest in the tree in that Garden Tea Party textile are exhibition and the tree was being donated to decorate a primary school library - and I figured the nest belonged in the tree so when we were packing it all up, I took a cople of photos of it and donated it ... if I want another one all I have to do is find some grass/hay/whatever, some string, a needle, a Bit more red/etc fabric (that bit is optional I guess ;-) and a comfy spot to sit outside where I can make a mess, and an hour or 2 of spare time ;-)


Bean pods on a tree ... not sure exactly what sort of trees - whatever species they planted as street trees in our street, and quite a few other streets nearby.



I liked the colour of these. They start off green and usually they just seem to go dark brown when they get old ... hmmm - maybe the trees in our street are a slightly different variety than the older ones a few streets away, that have been growing pods for longer than the ones in our street?


Bob, the sponge



I have a friend who likes a certain popular cartoon character, so for his birthday I made this ... er ... replica ... from a bit of sponge and pipe cleaners and felt ... weirdest pair of pants I have ever sewn - LOL

Beetle on a post:



if I didn't have so many photos I would have included a photo of what was hiding on the other side of the same post - a Huntsman - LOL  (He might end up in an ABC Wednesday letter H post, if I get around to that ;-)

A puff Ball:





A Bedraggled Butterfly




A Black Beetle


On my finger ;-)

Beetle Bum:



(this is what often happens when I try to take photos of Beetles, or Bugs etc - I often end up with a Backside, or just a Bit of the Beetle/Bug ... or the photo is Blurry ...)


 Bug on Banksia leaf




Buzzing Bee


Blurry, But I like the feeling of movement with the Barely there wings ...


Bubbles in a Beaker


Quite pretty really ... (not sure you will agree once you know what they are ;-)

Bottles and Beaker ...  (same Beaker the above Bubbles are in)


 This is fake urine, made for a science class to do a forensics practical lesson ... made with urea and yellow food dye, among other things, and some have egg white in them - was supposed to be powdered albumin (the protien that egg whites are made of) but I didn't have any - so fresh egg white was the next best thing ... it did the job fine ... But it made Bubbles in the "pee"... LOL


Lady Beetle


somewhere in Tasmania.


 Big Boulders on a Beach


(also in Tasmania.)


A video of Birds:


(one of the several things I have recently added to youtube ;-)

The same Bird - a crow - who was being pestered by those 2 Willy Wagtails until it flew away to this tree:



however it flew away from this tree just as I clicked the photo! Bother! LOL
(actually in this case I quite like the result)


Birds having a dust Bath



But looking a Bit wary Because they could see me.


Bug on the Back of my hand:


glad it is not as Bitey as it looks ... that pointy dangerous looking Bit is actually a sticking out leg - lol

Birds having fun on a fence


there were about 8 of them ... some kind of parrot.

More Birds:



another kind of parrot - sulphur crested cockatoos ... looking white against the blue sky, but not as white as they could have looked if they had not been so brown and dirty looking - lol

Beetles making more Beetles


(different beetles, and different day, than a similar photo in a previous post ... but might be the same bush in my garden ;-)

Bonkers looking Bird nest:



not sure if this is finished, unfinished, or falling to Bits - but look at all the odd Bits of stuff in it! LOL

Bug on the Back of my hand:


itty Bitty Bug.

Another Bizarre Beetle:



same beetle, different angle:




Butterly on some Blossom




another Butteryly with different Blossom


Yet another Black Beetle:


This one was at a friend's place on Christmas day.


While I was digging around in my youtube videos - I realised I had another Bird video:



... not that you can really see the Birds - but you can hear them ;-)

I also found this Bug video that I took a year or 3 ago:



I found it on something, picked it up, took a photo or 3 of it on my finger/hand, then put it on the post to take more pictures and it laid a dozen eggs - LOL

Boy I have a lot of photos of Birds and Bugs and Beetles and stuff ... and that lot is all just last year's photos!

Maybe just 2 or 3 from this year?

A Beetle with a wolf spider:


(yes I know - any excuse for more spider photos ;-)

A Banksia plant at the Botanic Garden:



yes - really weird, but quite Beautiful.
And ... last but not least - I found another excuse to include yet another spider photo ... I took this one a few nights ago - and can include it here Because this post title starts with "Birds and Bees ..." and - these 2 spiders are Bonking!


Yes - I think it is female on the left and male on the right - I can sort of see one of his palps reaching out to (or maybe even into) her ... I saw this while out walking the dog at around Midnight a few nights ago - as I was walking along the path I could see yet another Orb spider web in a tree - "oh goody - another spider to try and get a decent photo of" ... then I noticed "oh goody - there are 2 spiders in that web, I wonder if one is a male" (usually it is the female who builds the web ... I think) and then my question was answered because they ran toward each other did a bit of a high 5 with a few feet and flung their arms around each other and stayed like that for the few minutes it took for me to take about a dozen photos - LOL (most were blurry but one or 2 came out ok ;-)

Hmmmmmm - talking about birds (not that I was) ... lots of twittering outside, and it is getting light - maybe I had better go to bed!!!
(I tend to sort of change time zones when I am on holidays and don't have to get up in the mornings ... and I seem to do it even more when DH is also doing night shifts every few days - LOL ... I am going to have to change back to this time zone in the next day or so though - because I have to go Back to work on Friday ... sigh ...
By the way ... Blogger is Botching up the photo layout again ... But it is not too Bad so it can stay as it is for now ...

A few Arachnids from Around here And some other Awesome Arthropods, And other things, As well.

And An Amazingly long post title for Another round of ABC Wednesday, which seems to have been going for an Amazingly long time now ...

(And An Aside - I hope I was Allowed to put my Z post in the A linky thingy - LOL - After All - it did have An Animal in it, And A photo of a lovely Artistic letter A At the bottom ;-)
(drats ... linky thing closed b4 I got this posted ... Again!
... not sure I can get away with putting this in the B links, so I won't ... but I Also have more photos of spiders than I need for one post - so I might just have to do Another Arachnid post next time we are up to the letter A)

I will put A link to An Article About Arachnids, And some Additional links to information/photos/videos About spiders At the bottom of this post ...
And now ... the bit most people probably won't like At All - some photos of Arachnids ... And maybe one or 2 other Awsome things ... And - As usual - All these images are links to the bigger versions of them - so you can see these Amazing Arachnids As big As the camera did ;-)

The first photo is not a huge big hairy scary something, I thought about doing that, but I decided to be nice to the Arachnaphobes and put some webby ones first:



A web in the garden at work
 (I am not sure what sort of spider
- I probably didn't even look at it - silly me)


An orb spider with a lovely shiny web.



(this is one I saw in the trees when I was at a party at a friend's place;-)


For those who like playing "Where is Wally" (looking for things hidden in pictures/etc) there is an orb spider in this tree ...



(I found this one while out walking the dog - if you click on this iamge to see the full size version, and look above the tallest of those green plants at the bottom, you might notice a bit of the orb web shining in the flash, and above that, near the middle of the photo - is the spider ;-)


Another orb weaving spider - this one had her web ON the Hills Hoist (rotary clothes line) in my back yard one night in the middle of last year:



I went out to look at something (forget what) and nearly walked into the web ... I took some photos of the spider but they all turned out a bit blurry ... I am sure I have taken some better ones of the same sort of spider more recently though. Webs are not easy to get decent photos of either - I had to fiddle with the contrast/etc in this one to make the web show up better ...


Spiders have 8 legs right?



not this one! - it seems to be doing fine with a couple missing.
(this is some sort of wolf spider)


A rather wet web:



which belongs to some sort of orb spider. I found it while DH and I were walking the dog one foggy morning.

I also found this:



which seems to be sideways (oops) ... due to the fact that, something I only found out today - when I rotate a photo in windoze image viewer (rather than the camera software or GIMP or some other image editing software) it comes up how I changed it in the image viewer or windoze explorer ... but it isn't actually rotated and still comes up sideways everywhere else! ... grrrr ... (oh well ... sort of looks ok that way so I am not going to fix it and upload it again - if you want to see it the right way up just lean your head over to the left ... or tilt your computer screen/laptop/whatever to the right ;-)

I love the way the spiders have taken advantage of the holes in the chicken wire ;-)


This one isn't a spider, but it is an Arachnid ...



I am not sure if it is a mite (which it looked like when I saw it running around) or a tick ... either way - it was running around on my fingers when I took the photo a few months ago and I am still alive - lol


A Daddy Long Legs:



... with a fly. (in the corner of the ceiling inside - I usually leave them there in the hope that they will catch all the flies, and mozzies ;-)


some Ants:



... not Arachnids, but they Are Arthropods.


And ... a Tasmanian cave spider.



Someone mentioned these on facebook the other day, and I said I wished I had known about them when I was down there ... then, later on, I was looking on the computer, for spider photos for this post, and realised - I actually DID see some! ... I didn't know anything about them at the time, but - me being me, and liking spiders - I took a photo of one when I waw them in the entrance to a cave when DH and I went into it on a tour.
If I had known how interesting/different they were - I would have tried to get some better photos ... this one looks kind of weird and like it has 16 legs, because of the shadow from the light on the camera (it has a macro setting that also uses an LED light on the camera to light up the subject - which is why I can take photos of spiders/etc on the path/in trees when I am walking the dog at night ;-)


I have already used this one in another blog post but I like it:



last time I posted this picture I didn't know it was a jumping spider (which it is)
(I wonder if I should put this back as my facebook profile pic again? *cheeky grin*)


I have also posted this one before too (I found it when I went digging around in photos "from this blog" in the editor thingy ... in fact there were 2 copies for some odd reason ... )



This is also my profile picture on a couple of other online things I have a "profile" on ... I kind of like the way it is just "hanging around" ...


This one has also been on my blog already:



She is a Golden Orb spider.

This is the same spider, looking at her underside:



(this one was not in that other blog post)

She was in the bushes beside the path near Mum and Dad's place in Qld.
(mum took photos of the bird on the other side of the path while I took photos of the spider! ;-)


Here is a tiny little Jumping Spider I found on the door handle of my car.



yes I said door handle - that is how tiny it is!

here it is on the tree that I put it on before I drove off:



this looks a bit more like the sort of place it belongs ;-)


And - just to be different (because I found it while looking for spider photos and reaslised it Also starts with an A) - An Anenome:



This was down at the beach one day a few months ago - I think this is one of the photos I took by sticking the camera under the water in a rock pool (I like my "waterproof" camera ;-)


And here is every Arachnaphobes nightmare? a spider - with spiders on it:



She is probably a Wolf Spider, and she is carrying her babies on her back.


This is another photo of a spider that was on my hand in the photo I put in my "Yucky" post a week or 3 ago:



It is a "Spitting Spider" - they spit a bunch of web onto their prey to catch it.


And - here is another photo of the same spiky spider that was in my "yucky" post:



I actually managed to get a few decent, and in focus, photos of this one ;-)
(good daylight and lack of wind kind of helps there)


Another small spider, with an even smaller one next to it!
(so small I can see them better in the photo than I could just looking at them - lol)



These are a couple of the hundreds (possibly 1000s) of little spiders that are hanging around under our pergola ;-)


A Wolf Spider:



... on the lounge room floor!

I caught it in this takeaway container:



... and it didn't look to impressed ... but it was probably quite happy once it was running away into the garden outside ;-)

I forgot to bring the container back inside - and a day or 2 later I found Another spider in it:



Looks like some sort of Jumping Spider.
(btw - that is actually dog hair next to it, not spiderweb - lol)

And I found another similar one nearby:



Amazingly, I Actually got a couple of in focus photos while it was running around on the cement.


A huntsman:



I think this one was in the gutter next to the road, or on the footpath (forgot which) while I was walking the dog one evening.


And this one - I went outside looking, and found this in the back yard, just so I could take a photo!
(unfortunately it turned out not to be a very good photo ... a bit too bright)



It is one of our Aussie specials - a Redback - one of those that are poisonous and can kill you (although they usually don't, provided you seek medical attention so you can be given antivenom if you need it)

Here is the other photo I took of her (yes - her - the male is usually way smaller and less easily seen)



this one is not as well focussed, but shows the colour more like it really is.
(and you can see from the way she is sitting all bunched up - she was more afraid of me than I was of her!)

I went and looked for/found it the other day, because I reaslised that I have been looking at/finding these for years (ever since I can remember ;-) but I had never actually bothered to take a photo of one ... not sure why ... probably because they are so common/familiar to me? ... but they really are quite pretty ... I really must find some more and try and take some better photos of them ;-)

or I could go find that one again - I left her where she was because she wasn't in my way or at all likely to be bothering anyone where she is - and they eat mozzies and stuff - even if I had killed her - next time I went back to that pile of old plant pots there would just as likely be aonther one there anyway (if I find them where little kids are likely to poke their fingers, or in stuff that I am actually using and therefore likely to get bitten if I leave them in there - then I will squash them ... of flick them away into the garden or something)

Here is her old skin:



well - I assume it is hers - it was about the right size, and was in the web near where she was - they do tend to shed their skin every now and then ... one of the hassles of having your "skeleton" on the outside - if you want to grow bigger - you have to shed your skin when you do!


Another orb spider - found when walking the dog a couple nights ago:



probably not the same species as the ones in the first few photos though - it doesn't quite look the same.

here is the other side of the same spider:



this was before the dog walked in the wrong place and broke one of the anchor lines to the web ... sigh ... I wish he understood English a bit better - so I could point to somewhere and explain that I didn't want him to go that way - if he understood me, he probably would do what I said - Golden Retrievers Actually Are that eager to please ... when it suits them ... LOL


Here is Another spider I found in the back yard the other day:



looks like she has some food stored away here ;-)

Another view of the same spider:



I am not sure exacly what species this is - but it Appears to be one of those in the same genus as the Saint Andrew's Cross spider - an Agriope species.
er ... maybe that is enough spider photos for one post? LOL
btw - if the photos end up All over the place in this post - blame the blog editor, and me fiddling with settings - decided to turn some option on to see if the photo layout thingy worked ok/better now, but it didn't, so I had to go back and change it back, and then go and change all the weird crappy css code it had stuck in there (which is what messes things up so much) to make the photos do what I wanted ... but, seeing I know about "3/5ths of 5/8ths of stuff all" about web design/css code/etc (and what I do know is stuff I have learnt by messing around with things I probably shouldn't have), I might have missed something and it might all go screwy again when I post it - LOL

btw - talking about "screwy" - here is a hat I made last year - with a plastic spider on it!



I made it to wear to that "Garden Tea Party" textile art exhibition ... and maybe other places, now that I have it ... although I am sure if I wore it somwhere Mum could see it she would walk on the other side of the street!
(btw - photo is not that good - the light stuff got washed out - the snake actually has some green on it and the other white stuff is actually some crochet stuff ... one day I might remember to try and take a better photo - maybe put the hat on something instead of just holding it in my hand at "arm's length" for the photo)

Anyway ... this post is getting Awfully long (but I guess those who don't like spiders stopped reading ages ago, if they even started - lol) 
Also - I noticed I have Actually missed the deadline to put this in the linky thingy for ABC Wednesday ... Again ...
but - seeing I still have more spider photos, And Also intend to take even more, I might do Another Arachnid (or Arthropod?) post in About 6 months time - when we Are up to the letter A Again ...

Oh - I Almost forgot - the Arachnid links I said I was going to put down here!

http://www.xs4all.nl/~ednieuw/australian/Spidaus.html - a good spider ID website I was told about by someone.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arachnid - good starting point if you want to know about Arachnids ... Also - An interesting picture on the right hand side - a page from a book - which I have a copy of saved on my computer - it is Available on the Project Gutenberg website - I downloaded it because i thought it might be really good for design ideas/inspiration for quilts/embroidery/etc ... or just because it is interesting ;-)
er ... I suppose I should include a link to that? - hmmm maybe I didn't download it - can't find it where I would have put it - I probably just printed it and filed it away with all my other weird arty/crafty/quilty patterns I collect ;-)
(can't seem to find it on the project gutenberg site either ... but there seemed to be a few other places, in the search results from google, that had it ... or at least part of it)

http://australianmuseum.net.au/Spiders/ - more intersting spider info (including stuff about the Tasmanian cave spiders)

http://thomasshahan.com/photos - Amazing spider photos ... I think I want this guys camera! LOL
he has links on there (might have to hit the "home" button and go to his main page - worth it just to see the cute picture on there ;-) to his flickr photostream (wow!), and his youtube videos (even more wow!), and some other odd stuff - lol 
There is also a selection of some of his best photos here - http://triggerpit.com/2011/01/02/bug-close-up-beautiful-spider-photos-by-shahan/ (someone sent me that link on Facebook - that is how I found his website/etc - lol)

And if you go to my youtube channel - http://www.youtube.com/user/aykayem - and look down near the bottom of the page - there are currently 3 4 other youtubers who I am subscribed to - and 2 3 of them were becasue of their videos of spiders and other similar things ;-)
(the crossing out  and corrections were because I have also just subscribed to the one I mentioned above ... not sure why I didn't do that when I found it the other night ... thought I had actually ... but I guess not ... must be old age? (or computer glitches? ... or just brain glitches? lol)


Also ... now that it is after Midnight  ...

A: I should be posting my B post About now rather than still doing my A one ...

and ...

B: it is Australia Day ... so Bung another Banger on the BBQ and I will try to Be a Bit sooner with my B post ...
(But don't get too excited ... I do have other things to do in my life Besides Blogging so I might not actually get that one done in time either - sigh)