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A Return To Abattoir Swamp

By Paul T.
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Before we kick off, and for those of you who celebrate it, I wish you all a very Happy Easter, for those of you who don't partake - well, I wish you a Happy Easter all the same. A few posts ago, I introduced some of you to a regular little haunt of mine. Abattoir Swamp . - hit the link to check it out. Anyway, last night it was a full moon - not usually my preferred phase when critter bothering. Snake on a wire? But it was a nice evening with a warm, gentle breeze blowing, so we jumped into the truck and trundled off ... Upon arrival, the sun was just beginning to set. We tested our torches, adjusted camera settings and as the roosting birds became cacophonous, ventured forth. The generally accepted beaten path area of the swamp isn't large, though you can venture further afield if you choose. We decided to just keep it chilled and stuck to the boardwalk and short adjacent tracks. We were greeted by a medium-sized white-lipped tree frog as it set out for a night of hu
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Things To Do In The Dark

By Paul T.
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There's a bit going on in the world at the moment. I mean, yes, there always is - but lately it's all become so absurd and obscene, that even I've noticed. The U.S, "*allegedly" , blew up a pipeline that provided affordable energy to one of its own allies. Causing an environmental disaster of staggering proportions. Then, the same Govt, after telling railway workers they couldn't have paid sick leave, modern brakes on trains or the ability to strike on these issues - had to deal with a new environmental balls up, when a train derailed spilling thousands of litres of toxic chemicals. Some of which ended up in a river that provides water to millions of Americans To fix it - the authorities set the chemicals on fire. Making it much easier for carcinogenic particles to drift around unhindered in the atmosphere. Which was, of course - perfect. As it saved hundreds of dollars that would've been wasted on brooms, shovels, buckets and other trifles. The chemic
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A Spider Called Eight

By Paul T.
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I'm not sure how many people choose to name individual critters that share their homes. But I like to. I don't mean pets, more the occasional interloper that comes along and stays for a while. Our most recent visitor is 'Eight' - and he's a very handsome fellow. Eight is a Grey huntsman and as such is one of the largest spiders by leg span in Australia - reaching a said span of around 24cm - roughly, your average dinner plate size. And they're fast - with the ability to cover areas around five times their size in just one second - in human terms, that's the equivalent of Usain Bolt running flat out! He is venomous, but like most, though not all huntsman - his venom isn't known to be medically significant to humans. That being said, huntsman spiders are implicated in a number of vehicle accidents throughout the country ... Picture the scene, you're driving - singing along to some banal auto-tuned garbage on the wireless, when the sun starts to g
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A Snake-Spider Bite?

By Paul T.
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Before we begin, a word of warning. The second image in this post is graphic and shows an infected wound. If you continue to read this post, I would strongly advise that you put your sandwich down beforehand. You know when you were a kid and ya kept getting hurt, bumping into things - falling off your bike and such? People would say you were in "the wars". Well, it seems that - at least for me, the wars continue. At our joint we have a number of critters that come and go - some are benign and some are not. But on the whole, we all tend to get along without too much drama. Occasionally though, there are small conflicts ... A short time ago I was bitten on the hand by a Brown house spider, they are related to the Red-back spider and while nowhere near as venomous, they do have an annoying little bite. And it seems no matter how many Daddy long-leg spiders we encourage into the house, the Browns just keep on, keeping on. I have been bitten a few times, normally resulting i
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Me?

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Photographer, Artist, Dreamer & Drinker