Cut down a very big, ugly, dead and dangerous Eucalypt this week in a park behind a local school.
When the tree hit the ground the resulting crunch was so loud it surprised even me. Don't know why I chose that particular day to bring my macro-rig to work with me, but I'm glad I did. The whole tree literally erupted with life. Spiders of all shapes and sizes including a stack of very large and hairy huntsmans. I grabbed a couple of the bigger girls and placed them back on the bark for some photos. This one took a little while to settle down after sitting on my hand, but persistence paid off.
Then I came across this inch-long jumping spider, a little hairier than most around my house but still lots of fun and filled with the usual cheeky character.
The next one I played with on my finger for a while before settling it back down on the bark. I did hear afterwards that these ones can bite quite hard, but ignorance is bliss. Not sending off fear pheromones probably helped me there.....
Crawling all over the shattered wood and waaay too early for spring were all these beautiful harlequin bugs.
About 6 times the size of a ladybeetle, this one looked dead for a bit. I gave it a shove and it moved so I took the shot.
Meanwhile, in the land of the living trees overlooking our destruction, this little fellow kept an eye on us.
When the tree hit the ground the resulting crunch was so loud it surprised even me. Don't know why I chose that particular day to bring my macro-rig to work with me, but I'm glad I did. The whole tree literally erupted with life. Spiders of all shapes and sizes including a stack of very large and hairy huntsmans. I grabbed a couple of the bigger girls and placed them back on the bark for some photos. This one took a little while to settle down after sitting on my hand, but persistence paid off.
Then I came across this inch-long jumping spider, a little hairier than most around my house but still lots of fun and filled with the usual cheeky character.
The next one I played with on my finger for a while before settling it back down on the bark. I did hear afterwards that these ones can bite quite hard, but ignorance is bliss. Not sending off fear pheromones probably helped me there.....
Crawling all over the shattered wood and waaay too early for spring were all these beautiful harlequin bugs.
About 6 times the size of a ladybeetle, this one looked dead for a bit. I gave it a shove and it moved so I took the shot.
Meanwhile, in the land of the living trees overlooking our destruction, this little fellow kept an eye on us.