Yet another tentacled thing

Mount Tomah Botanic Garden (2013)

hapalochlaena — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 13:15:42 +0000

Little Wattlebird (Anthochaera chrysoptera)

If you’re making your annual trip to the “Plants With Bite” Display and Fair at the Mount Tomah Botanic Garden in the Blue Mountains, you really should take some time to walk through the gardens as well, especially if the weather is good. The place is beautifully maintained and full of interesting plants and wildlife.

These photos are the result of an hour’s walk-and-stalk. Weather: warm and very slightly hazy, with high cloud and bright sunlight.

Mount Tomah Botanic garden

Bee (Apis mellifera) with Grevillea rhyolitica ssp. rhyolitica

Bog garden with carnivorous plants

Sarracenia purpurea

Bog garden with carnivorous plants

Sarracenia flava

Bog garden with carnivorous plants

Mount Tomah Botanic garden

Juvenile Australian Magpie (Cracticus tibicen)

Little Wattlebird (Anthochaera chrysoptera)

I hid in the bushes to get this series of Wattlebird shots, holding the foliage away from the lens with one hand and operating the camera with the other.

Little Wattlebird (Anthochaera chrysoptera)

English walnut (Juglans regia)

I had no idea that walnuts looked like this when still on the tree.

Eastern Water Skink (Eulamprus quoyii)

The skinks were out, basking in the evening sun as closing time approached. The snake was still asleep.

Diamond python (Morelia spilota spilota)

–
Date: 10 March 2013
Camera: Pentax K-5
Lens 1: Pentax smc DA 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 ED AL [IF]
Ambient light only.
Conditions: Bright, slightly cloudy.
Hand-held only.
Cropping and resizing in Irfanview.

Happy first birthday, Bertie

hapalochlaena — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 10:20:53 +0000

Bertie shakes the dew off his ears and face (04 March 2013)

Here’s Bertie, in a photo taken a day before his official birthday. His actual date of birth is unknown, because he was found wandering on the street one day in May last year and handed in to the local vet. My curiosity was my undoing: one of the vet techs called me, I went over to have a look — and shortly thereafter returned home with a very small bunny in a pet carrier.

A comparison with the Underfoots’ “baby” pictures suggested that Newbunny, as he was then known, was about eight weeks old. If he had been bred for the Easter trade (very probable) he’d probably have been separated from his mother at a very young four weeks.

Having ventured into the garden on his own for the first time in his life, Bertie runs and jumps for joy. (04 March 2013)

To cut a long story short, Newbunny settled in pretty quickly and learned how to use the litterbox without any trouble, nearly got murdered by Sooty, who was grumpy with a broken leg and succumbed to osteosarcoma and few weeks later, and endeared himself to Sooty’s brother Smudge. It was quite the achievement, given that Smudge was pretty grumpy too (but not in that ‘I kill U’ sort of way). Newbunny remained cheerful and explosively fast as he leaped and bounced on and around Smudge, settled down to groom him, and then presented to be groomed himself. He refused to go outside for nearly a year.

Bertie under the hazelnut bush whose leaves he refuses to eat. The Underfoots used to love the foliage, whether fresh or dried. (04 March 2013)

The pair remained comfortable together until Newbunny hit puberty and made Smudge’s life a living hell with his non-stop humping. It was around this time that Newbunny earned his new name: (Dirty) Bertie.

I was forced to separate them when one day Smudge lost his temper and dragged Bertie down the steps by the ear. Bertie landed badly and sustained a back injury which would later show up in X-rays as a kink in the spine, right between the shoulder blades. Around the same time he also caught an infection from Smudge which couldn’t be treated by Baytril: Smudge’s illness manifested as a retrobulbar abcess, and Bertie’s as pneumonia.

Smudge couldn’t be saved, but Bertie was treated by an exotics vet for both the pneumonia and the severe liver damage that had resulted from corticosteroid treatment for his back. It took two months of doxicycline (oral), pencillin (injectable) as well as a bronchodilator (oral) to save his life. Bertie was uncooperative, and I learned to dread the daily morning and evening sessions of medicine administration. May it never be necessary again!

Bertie is still nervous about going outside. This morning I had to carry him out for a photo session. (05 March 2013)

Now that he has made a complete recovery, Bertie gets the free run of the house whenever I’m at home. This leads to situations like this one, described in an email to family and friends on 28th February:

Bertie the (failed) alpinist

So, late last night there was a sound of falling stuff which I declined to get out of bed to investigate.

This morning there was no pitter-patter of Bertie feet. He didn’t come to demand tribute. I vaguely wondered if he was sulking again and went about my business.

Still no Bertie.

I had a look around for evidence that would explain last night’s noise, and found it in the back bathroom where some stuff had fallen off a pile of shoes, boxes, dried sphagnum moss… but there was no sign of Bertie.

Off went the light switch, and I turned around to look elsewhere — and a soft rustle came from the within the bathroom.

Bertie had indeed ascended the pile, you see, and caused an avalanche. He was trapped under a box ledge against the wall, and if he hadn’t made the sound he wouldn’t have been found. It took some time to extricate the little monster, and the first thing he did was use the litter box and get something to eat and drink.

Oh, and there’s just been another avalanche in the bathroom. I guess I should get up and have a look.

Apprehensive about the Frightening Outdoors. (05 March 2013)

Bertie sulks. If you ignore him in the evening, he’ll hide somewhere and sulk. And then he’ll come into the bedroom — all full of magnanimous forgiveness — in the early hours of the morning when he knows that you’re awake, and he’ll demand your full attention. No holding a book with one hand, chum. Pay attention to ME, and do it with both hands!

Gingerly venturing out again. (05 March 2013)

It is also unwise to fall asleep on the floor, because Bertie will become Your Barber. Your hair is very tasty, and he’ll eat it.

Stairs successfully navigated. (05 March 2013)

Any excuse to head for home. (05 March 2013)

Having come to the conclusion that Home will not disappear when he leaves it for a short while, Bertie goes exploring again. (05 March 2013)

Happy birthday, Bertie, and many happy returns!

—
Date: 04-05March 2013
Camera: Pentax K-5
Lens 1: Pentax smc DA 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 ED AL [IF]
Lens 2: Sigma 50mm 1:2.8 DG Macro
Ambient light only.
Conditions: heavy overcast.
Hand-held only.
Cropping and resizing in Irfanview.

Singapore 2013: #1 Flying out

hapalochlaena — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 06:33:00 +0000

A very large bay on the southern coast of Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. River mouth coordinates: -3.172054,113.600578

This post is for people who like looking at hazy pictures taken through finely scratched and slightly distorted aeroplane windows at around 30,000 feet.

It’s also for people who enjoy looking at clouds and land formations, and locating said formations on maps. (I’m not very good at this and have identified only two items so far.)

For context:

SYD-SIN, via FlyScoot TZ1, 03 February 2013. Departure approx. 1505hrs (delayed by an hour). Business class window seat, right side.

If you want to fly cheap and in comfort, this is a good choice. A ScootBiz ticket bought at the right time costs about $100 more than an economy seat on a Singapore Airlines A380. And there’s plenty of legroom and a nice leather seat that is not too narrow. But beware! A very large neighbour can still overflow into your seat. ScootBiz seat configuration is 2-4-2.

This next bit is a reminder to myself, in case I have to make another trip in the near to mid-term:

This airline encourages you to bring your own food and drink, because everything is chargeable. On the SIN-SYD trip I will ensure that I have lots of Old Chang Kee curry puffs, a large guava (Psidium guajava) and maybe a few jambus (Syzygium samarangense). Warning: stomach may explode from overeating.
Want a drink? In Sydney, buy one from a vending machine after clearing Security. In Singapore: bring an empty bottle and fill it from the water cooler in the departure lounge, after clearing security.
Pick a right-side seat on the SYD-SIN leg, and a left-side seat on the SIN-SYD leg.

And now, on with the show. As always, click on photo to enbiggen.

Somewhere in Australia with a huge river network. Lots of pinks and browns, and not a lot of green.

More rivers and mountains, I think.

Approaching the coast.

In a few minutes we’ll be gone. See you later, Australia!

Back over a large land mass. Was my farewell premature? At least we now have clouds, and they look like a flock of woolly sheep.

A classic thunderhead (with flashes of lightning seen but not photographed). See the nice green landscape below, complete with meandering river.

Frankly, I don’t know where we are. Over one of the Indonesian islands, maybe?

Another thunderhead. There’s no lack of rainfall in this area.

We fly into cloud for a considerable time. There is mild turbulence.

I’d love to know what city that is.

We’ve switched between sea and land a few times, and here we are crossing the coast again.

And again.

Here’s more weather for you

Even thin cloud can obscure the land completely.

I’m betting most of this feature is under water, and a lot of it is coral reefs

Heavy rain is happening to that island

A very large bay on the southern coast of Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. River mouth coordinates: -3.172054,113.600578

Southern coast of Central Kalimantan, Indonesia. Island coordinates: -3.274202,113.391838

This is not a pile of whipped cream

Last light, and we are again flying into turbulence. We’ll be safely on the ground in about an hour, after a perfect landing.

–

Date: 03 February 2013
Camera: Pentax K-5
Lens 1: Pentax smc DA 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 ED AL [IF]
Ambient light only.
Conditions: Overcast, rain.
Hand-held only.
Cropping and resizing in Irfanview.

A day of bedragglement

hapalochlaena — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 05:37:37 +0000

Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (Cacatua galerita)

The rains have finally come, a gift from ex-tropical cyclone Oswald after several months of drought, searing heat waves — and more recently, weeks of bushfires. Up north in Queensland there are tornadoes and floods. On the New South Wales Central Coast and Sydney, wind and rain. It has been raining non-stop with varying intensity since early yesterday morning or perhaps the night before. All my rainwater tanks (about 9000 litres’ worth) are overflowing.

Yesterday I visited my friends A & U at their home near Gosford and was afforded the opportunity to photograph the local wildlife in the wet. The drive was interesting and the highway crowded with pretty much everyone driving at or just above the speed limit (which is fine in the dry but probably not particularly wise in inclement weather, hmm? There were several wrecks, accompanied by blue-red flashing lights, tow trucks and cop cars on the other side of the road on the trip back). Here are some of the photos from the visit:

Australian Wood Duck, Maned Duck or Maned Goose (Chenonetta jubata)

A is none too fond of these creatures because they love to fly in and paddle in his swimming pool. They look very pretty and all, but who wants to go swimming in duck shit? The wing-flapper is the male. He is surrounded by his ~~harem~~ flock.

Juvenile Grey Butcherbird (Cracticus torquatus)

This juvenile Grey Butcherbird hasn’t grown into its adult plumage yet. It is quite partial to a bit of minced beef, and will one day (hopefully) become confident enough to take food directly from a human hand.

Juvenile Grey Butcherbird (Cracticus torquatus)

White-headed Pigeon (Columba leucomela)

White-headed pigeons are occasional visitors.

White-headed Pigeon (Columba leucomela)

Noisy Miner (Manorina melanocephala)

Noisy Miners are everywhere!

Slender-billed Cuckoo Dove (Macropygia phasianella)

The Slender-billed Cuckoo Dove is also an occasional visitor that generally stays in the trees unless the weather is overcast and wet. One of these birds once crashed into a window, recovered and repeated the suicide attempt before recovering again and flying away.

Slender-billed Cuckoo Dove (Macropygia phasianella)

Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (Cacatua galerita)

This Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, possibly an escaped pet, is relatively unafraid of people and will come right up to the house and eat from the guinea fowl’s food dish. If it reckons there aren’t enough noms it gets stroppy and starts eating the house. Its presence also draws in other wild cockatoos. For these reasons it is another of A‘s not-so-favourite birds.

Sulphur-crested Cockatoo (Cacatua galerita)

–

Date: 27 January 2013
Camera: Pentax K-5
Lens 1: Pentax smc DA 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 ED AL [IF]
Ambient light only.
Conditions: Overcast, rain.
Hand-held only.
Cropping and resizing in Irfanview.

There is something in my garden, and it is eating

hapalochlaena — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 02:45:39 +0000

Roma/Cherry tomato hybrid

This is the last remaining ripe tomato on my plant this morning. Yesterday: approximately 10 ripe and ripening tomatoes. Today: 1.

Everything else is green.

Roma/Cherry tomato hybrid

This one grows with the chickory. It really shouldn’t have been in that planter; I was too lazy to relocate it in time.

Cherry tomato

These plants are volunteers: they came up after I harvested compost from the bin, about a year after I threw in a failed crop grown from a batch of commercially-sourced seedlings which succumbed fairly quickly to a fungus disease.

The culprit must be one of these winged demons otherwise known as Noisy Miners (Manorina melanocephala):

Noisy Miner (Manorina melanocephala)

because they left evidence on the vine: feathers.

At least nothing has tried to sample my pineapple:

Pineapple (Ananas comosus)

Do not proceed beyond this point if you don’t want to see dead things.

Today’s malodorous lawn surprise comes in two parts: A cat has turned my garden into a latrine. Yes. And it ate a big rat last night. How do I know? Why, there’s a complete hind leg and a pile of entrails on the lawn, of course. Yucko.

Complete leg of rat

Rat entrails with possible inclusion of intestinal worm

The whole thing

Kitty (or whatever predator it was) did not emerge from this epic fight unscathed:

Claw

This claw (not including the tissue attached to it) is slightly larger than the dead rat’s foot. It looks as if the animal lost an entire digit, and there’s something that looks like a detached bone fragment as well. Could a third, larger predator have been involved?

Oh yeah, the ants in the photo? They are eating too.

–

14 January 2013 update:

Something’s come in overnight and removed/eaten the leg.

The clawtip in the picture above is 10mm long.

There’s another piece of tissue on the lawn that appears to be from a cheek: coarse vibrassae are sticking out of it. I really hope it doesn’t mean there’s a fox in the area, because if this is the case, the rabbit can never be allowed to play outside without supervision. The sky is too overcast for a photo; I’ll see if the light is any better this afternoon.

–

16 January 2013 update:

Well, I still don’t know what this bit came from. The colouring suggests that it could come from the owner of the leg, but the size does not seem proportionate.

–

Date: 13 January 2013
Camera: Pentax K-5
Lens 1: Pentax smc DA 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 ED AL [IF]
Ambient light only.
Conditions: Overcast
Hand-held only.
Cropping and resizing in Irfanview.

Road trip with lighthouses (and birds!) #3: Crowdy Head

hapalochlaena — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 15:00:47 +0000

Australian Pelican (Pelecanus conspicillatus)

With no good weather news coming in, we decided to make a dash for Sydney. Lunch was cooked, luggage was packed; the car was loaded and moving by 0815. As we moved further south the skies cleared but the winds increased and could be felt buffeting the car.

But I couldn’t resist the idea of visiting another lighthouse (and anyway everyone agreed it was time for lunch), so I took the turnoff to Crowdy Head.

We drove through a newish residential development and stopped at the town of Harrington to eat in the car — it was too cold and windy to use the picnic tables.

And then it was time to investigate the flock of pelicans resting along the foreshore.

Australian Pelican (Pelecanus conspicillatus), Harrington Beach

That ridge of downy feathers on the back of its neck must be really soft.

Australian Pelican (Pelecanus conspicillatus)

A pelican braces in anticipation of catching a flying piece of bread.

Australian Pelican (Pelecanus conspicillatus)

Pelicans in flight are beautiful and graceful creatures.

Australian Pelican (Pelecanus conspicillatus)

While having lunch we’d noticed the presence of a bird of prey (russet shoulders and black or dark brown wingtips) and its harassment by a noisy miner (Manorina melanocephala). It had moved away by the time we’d finished, and I was caught off-guard when another bird appeared: a juvenile White-bellied Sea Eagle (Haliaeetus leucogaster) flying slowly by with a large struggling fish in its talons.

By the time I had my camera in my hands (with the wrong lens, damn it!) it had disappeared from view and I thought I’d missed my chance.

A juvenile White-bellied Sea Eagle (Haliaeetus leucogaster) with its catch

But it made a big, leisurely loop around the bay and came around again for another flyby. There wasn’t enough time to change over to the long lens, and I had to be content with the 18-135mm.

Juvenile White-bellied Sea Eagle (Haliaeetus leucogaster)

I thought at first the fish might be a bream, but I’m now fairly sure it is a luderick/blackfish (Girella tricuspidata).

Crowdy Head Lighthouse

Crowdy Head Lighthouse (S 31° 50.7′, E 152° 45.3′) is about 226km from Coffs Harbour, 6km from Harrington and 356km from Sydney. It is still active.

Crowdy Head Lighthouse

We saw whales breaching and tailslapping a long distance away. No opportunity for photos, unfortunately.

The weather closed in again shortly after we left Crowdy Head, and we had rain and buffeting winds all the way back to Sydney. We arrived at 1803; the distance travelled on the day was 588km.

—

Road trip with lighthouses #2: Coffs Harbour and surrounds

hapalochlaena — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 21:09:34 +0000

Smoky Cape Lighthouse, Hat Head National Park

10 October 2012

We started off early for Coffs Harbour, with a side trip to South West Rocks and the Smoky Cape Lighthouse.

But first, we made a short stop at Ricardoes, a tomato and strawberry farm at Blackmans Point, not more than 18 km, I’d estimate, from Port Macquarie’s CBD.

Strawberries at Ricardoes

I’ve never seen strawberries grown this way (but then I’ve not been to any farms in Aussie): the plants are grown in a network of domestic downpipes, maybe 90mm in diameter, set at 5 to 10 degrees from the vertical. Holes for the plants are drilled into these pipes, horticultural sponge is stuffed into the holes, and the plants are grown in the sponge.

Strawberry flower

Strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa)

The plants are watered hydroponically: a roaring success! The foliage is rich and the fruits are luscious.

Strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa)

The Smoky Cape Lighthouse (S 30°55’23″ E 153°05’15.73″) is about 85km from Port Macquarie and 108km from Coffs Harbour. The closest township is Arakoon, about 3km from South West Rocks. The lighthouse is in the Hat Head National Park.

: Smoky Cape Lighthouse, Hat Head National Park

Smoky Cape Lighthouse

The lighthouse was exhibited in 1891 and is still active today. The keeper’s cottage is now a B&B.

Smoky Beach North, Hat Head National Park

The steep ascent to Smoky Cape Lighthouse

Fancy a stay? The beaches are unspoilt and the views are magnificent. Keep in mind that the light is the highest in Australia (128m) and you’ll have a bit of a climb to find your bed. The accommodations (lightkeeper’s cottages) are to the right of the picture. The closest beach is accessible via a steep trail from the Captain Cook Lookout (0.8km). Add to that the distance from the cottages and you’ll be climbing/descending at least a kilometre every time you want a swim.

Extra dollop of coolness: there’s plenty of whale watching during the migration season.

Smoky Cape Lighthouse

An ultralight aircraft flying around Smoky Cape Lighthouse

This strange little aircraft happened to be flying around the lighthouse and the surrounding headland at the perfect time, i.e. when I was there to photograph it.

We got to Coffs Harbour in the late afternoon, found our service apartment and didn’t leave again until the next morning.

11 Oct 2012
The weather closed in with overcast and rain amid dire predictions of thunderstorms and gale force winds further south. Some planned activities had to be shelved in favour of grocery shopping, cooking, and lazing about. We did drive to southern arm of Coffs Harbour, at the end of the Jordan Esplanade, for a squizz at the scenery.

The driver of the car in front of us pulled up, emptied a bag of prawn bits out of a window and moved on a few metres. The gulls mobbed the pile and had breakfast. Here’s one of them:

Silver Gull (Chroicocephalus novaehollandiae)

Off the beach in front of us, surfers were braving the elements.

Surfing at Coffs Harbour

Surfer at Coffs Harbour

The weather wasn’t much better at the grower’s market in central Coffs, but there were interesting sights and sounds. Here’s Queensland-based musician Dave Johnson, whose digeridoo fusion music I liked enough that I bought a couple of CDs.

Dave Johnson / Didgera at Coffs Harbour

—

Road trip with lighthouses #1: Port Macquarie and surrounds

hapalochlaena — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 21:40:52 +0000

Tacking Point Lighthouse, Port Macquarie

A planned road trip to the Gold Coast (Queensland) with family (689km, 7 days) was truncated for reasons of distance/time and became a New South Wales-only holiday terminating at Coffs Harbour (536km, 5 days) before the return trip to Sydney. The revised plan involved driving to Port Macquarie using the fastest possible route, staying for two nights and then moving north to Coffs Harbour to stay an additional two nights, with an option to extend through Sunday if necessary. The return journey would be a slower one via coastal roads rather than solely using the Pacific Highway.

Here are some photos from Port Macquarie and its surrounds.

Monday 08 October 2012

We started our journey at 0940, stopping for lunch at Buladelah (S 32° 24.780″, E 152° 12.416″) and then proceeding to Laurieton, a town on the Camden Haven River, south of Port Macquarie.

This wharf is just off Mill Street, next to the Laurieton Riverside Seafoods co-op (S 31° 39.311″, E 152° 47.888).

Pelican and fishing boats, Laurieton

Fishing boats, Laurieton

High and dry

It was 1607 when we arrived at the service apartment (situated within walking distance of the Sea Acres Nature Reserve in Port Macquarie), so that was pretty much it for the day. Distance travelled: 411 km.

Tuesday 09 October 2012

We were greeted by the songs of kookaburras, magpies, currawongs, lyrebirds and something that sounded like high-pitched ducks starting at 0530; a different but pleasant sort of experience.

First stop of the day: Shelly Beach (S 31° 27.497″, E 152° 55.974), part of the Sea Acres Nature Reserve.

Shelly Beach, Port Macquarie

The following wave pictures are deliberately underexposed, just because I like the effect.

Breaking waves, Shelly Beach

Birds on a rock platform, Shelly Beach

Breaking waves, Shelly Beach

The Tacking Point Lighthouse (S 31° 28.537, E 152° 56.197) is rather squat, but it probably doesn’t need extra height because:

Tacking Point Lighthouse, Port Macquarie

According to the Lighthouses of Australia, Inc. site, it was exhibited in 1879 and is still in use.

: Lighthouse Beach as seen from Tacking Point Lighthouse

A view from Tacking Point Lighthouse

Tacking Point Lighthouse, Port Macquarie

Here’s Flynn’s Beach:

Rocks at Flynns Beach, Port Macquarie

Surfer at Flynns Beach

When you have nothing left to lose (fixing a Rotring 400 nib)

hapalochlaena — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 14:33:20 +0000

Rotring 400 nibs and shipping tube. To unscrew the nib/feed assembly from the sleeve, you insert the nib into the red plug and twist.

Back in the 80s–or maybe the 90s–I destroyed a couple of Rotring 400 fountain pen sections by first using technical pen ink in the pens and then trying to unclog them by soaking them in technical pen cleaner. This was a really bad mistake, because corrosive substance + anodised aluminum = disaster. Fortunately, Rotring GmbH saved me from myself and replaced the sections free of charge (they weren’t under any obligation to do so), including the nibs. The damaged section sleeves had to go but the nibs had repair potential, I thought; but after much effort they remained irreparable and I put them away for close to two decades.

In 2010 I tried unsuccessfully to get the nibs working again, and although I resolved to finally get rid of them – this time, really, honest — my pack-rat tendencies got the better of me. Back into the parts box they went, neatly labelled as FAULTY–THROW AWAY!

Fast forward to today. I’d gone a-Googling for replacement nibs again and come up empty-handed except for a few tentative leads. This time I listened to the voice of frustration, retrieved the dead nibs from the parts box and prepared to destroy them completely — or fix them.

First nib. No idea how it had originally been assembled. Pliers. Application of force. Tinkling of shiny metal object as it skittered across the desk.

Nasty, ugly toolmarks on metal and plastic. Oh, well.

Rotring 400 nib and feed

I cleaned the parts with a brush, then blew through one end of the feed. There seemed to be no blockage. Just for the hell of it I scored the channel on the feed with a utility knife, to make it a bit wider and deeper. Back went the nib onto the feed, and the feed into the sleeve. A new cartridge was installed and the pen reassembled.

Surprise, surprise: nothing came out of the business end but inkless writing. I put the pen aside, nib down, and returned every few hours to see if things had improved.

Over twelve hours later the pen decided it was time to wake up and write scratchily. I realigned the tines with the help of a loupe and stopped when finally:

This is the rattiest pen in my collection, so the extra toolmarks don’t matter, right?

Ha. Ze kludge, it worked! Onward to the next!

Edit 08 July:

Fixed the other nib tonight. There were more problems this time: nib slightly squashed, tines pressed together too tightly; crud in feed. It’s really a good thing that the metal was so tough and springy — my ham-handed efforts would have destroyed the thing otherwise. Nib and feed may look as if they have been through the wars but the pen works quite nicely, which is all that really matters.

And if I really wanted pretty… well, I managed to score some new Rotring F and M triples (nib/feed/housing) on Ebay tonight. Woohoo!

–
Camera: Pentax K-5
Date: 01 July 2012
Lens 1: Sigma 50mm 1:2.8 DG Macro
Ambient light only.
Hand-held only.
Cropping and resizing in Irfanview.

Spider day: Eriophora transmarina

hapalochlaena — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 12:25:39 +0000

Eriophora transmarina

I found a large web in the backyard one wet February morning, stretched between a rose bush and a hazelnut shrub. In the middle of it sat a smallish Australian Garden Orb Weaver Spider (Eriophora transmarina): about 2.5 cm from the top of its head to its spinnerets.

They can grow quite a bit larger than that: I’ve seen a much larger (and lumpier) specimen, about 4 cm from head to tail, in a garden in Kogarah. If I ever find the photo again I’ll add it to this post for comparison.

Eriophora transmarina

These spiders often build their webs at night and then hide away for most of the day. Spidey’s appearance, relatively late on this summer morning (around 0700, with enough light for flash-free photography), was a bonus.

Another of these spiders once built its web less than a metre from my front door, and I nearly walked into it late at night. After a week of avoiding the structure I broke its anchor to the ground; two days later the web appeared again, but off to the side where it wouldn’t cause any problems.

Eriophora transmarina

After sitting around for many photographs, Spidey finally got spooked and slowly moved away.

Eriophora transmarina

Even with the heavy dew there was no question of photographing the entire web: the background was too variable and there was hardly any backlighting.

Web of Eriophora transmarina

I’ve read somewhere that Eriophora transmarina eats its own web in the evening before making a new one every night. I’m not sure how true that is, but I can say that new construction can start as early as 2000hrs.

Web of Eriophora transmarina

The centre of the web is on the right of this image.

–
Camera: Pentax K-5
Date: 15 February 2012
Lens 1: Sigma 50mm 1:2.8 DG Macro
Ambient light only.
Hand-held only.
Cropping and resizing in Irfanview.