House guests

As you know we've not been getting out and about too much but in Australia you can generally sit back and let the wildlife come to you.

Sydney Funnel-web

The house has still not been breached by spiders but a few weeks back we did have our first encounter with a Sydney Funnel-web just outside the front door. It was incredibly aggressive rearing up and showing off it's impressive fangs but the funnel-web is slow and can't jump or climb smooth surfaces and so it's easy enough to catch them in a Tupperware box. You still need to be careful though as they can apparently bite through the plastic and at the end of the day they can kill you. The local hospitals accept live specimens to milk for anti-venom but I'm ashamed to admit that they don't stay alive for too long round my place.

Golden-crowned Snake

Although the spiders haven't entered the house yet, the snakes have! The Tupperware box was out again when we came across a Golden-crowned Snake behind a chest-of-drawers in the downstairs bedroom. It was only a young one maybe 25-30cm long and so it wasn't too much of a problem to catch it and put it safely outside. They are mildly venomous and so despite being pretty placid I'm glad it wasn't a fully grown adult at 70-80cm.

Jack on his perch

Jack's back! After several months of absence Emily was working in her office when Jack the magpie casually strolled in through the open door sporting his new adult plumage. He'd come in through his window and then searched the house to find Emily. Of course he was rewarded with some kangaroo mince. Nice to see he still remembers us.