Bits and pieces

A new bird last week! The Wandering Tattler #410 could turn up any time but they're not common and vastly outnumbered by the almost identical Grey-tailed Tattlers. The slightly darker Wandering, however, prefers rocks out by the breaking surf and is a more solitary chap as compared to his Grey-tailed cousins. Paul and I popped down to Long Reef on Sydney's Northern Beaches after work to track him down. With the tide still covering the rock platform and darkness approaching there was nothing for it but to wade about in knee-deep water for a couple of hours until we finally located the bird.

A very inaccessible Wandering Tattler

The Bluebottles were floating about in the water but luckily were easy to spot. And what a wierd creature we found washed up on the sand. A Blue Dragon Sea Slug which is a pelagic sea slug that floats about on the surface of the world's oceans feeding on Bluebottles!

Crazy looking Blue Dragon Sea Slug (Internet pic.)

At the weekend the lads decided to go and do the Warrior Dash - a cross-country run involving obstacles like pits of quicksand and the like. I went along for the after-race camping but the rain started coming down hard and so we decided it would be better to just get back to Sydney and have a curry and watch the football!

Warriors!

At home, the constant battle between good and evil continues. Like all spiders, though, the Huntsman has an Achilles heel - the bathtub. This one was going nowhere. Of course the really big ones can just step out of the bath like you and me!

Trapped!