Meanwhile in Australia...

[Headphonaholic]

So this is what Australia is like huh?

Saw that article today and couldn't help but share it since we have a number of Australians on the forums, and well, I found it amusing

 

[restorer-john]

I just had to kill two giant wolf spiders that were the size of my outstretched hand. Abdomens as big as my thumb. One decided to come out of the engine bay the other day while I was driving and casually walk over the windscreen and back into the engine bay. The other I had to flame up on the back deck with a can of spray and a lighter. He was massive.

Biggest spiders I have ever seen. Bigger than the bird-eating spiders up in north Queensland.

Carpet pythons are cool, we have several around the house including a 12ft one we haven't seen for a while- he's in the roof someplace. Never get a rat or mouse thanks to him. Sometimes they catch a possum or bandicoot and can't get back in the roof as they are so fat. Takes several days to digest and expel the guts.

 

[Sir Sanders Zingmore]

We have sharks, some of the deadliest spiders and snakes in the world, poisonous jellyfish, poisonous fish... the list goes on.
But if you ask most Aussies what they worry about, it’s being swooped by magpies in spring.

 

[restorer-john]

But if you ask most Aussies what they worry about, it’s being swooped by magpies in spring.

Not ours, they bring their young to introduce them each year. They also like bacon, sausages and basically anything from our fridge I was going to throw out. I whistle and they come.

 

[Sir Sanders Zingmore]

Not ours, they bring their young to introduce them each year. They also like bacon, sausages and basically anything from our fridge I was going to throw out. I whistle and they come.

Yes they do get to know you.

I guess we shouldn’t mention drop-bears

 

[restorer-john]

I guess we shouldn’t mention drop-bears

sssh.

 

[bigx5murf]

My wife freaked out the first time a scorpion came into the house. I captured it, surrounded it with lighter fluid, and lit it, when it realized it couldn't escape the flames, it committed suicide by stinging itself to death. She stated reservations about moving in with me after that.

 

[Don Hills]

... I guess we shouldn’t mention drop-bears

Or burning budgies. (Nothing to do with budgie smugglers.)

 

[Headphonaholic]

I've heard that Australia can be a scary place and you guys are confirming it lol

 

[Thomas savage]

I’m surprised no ones mentioned the women yet....

 

[cjfrbw]

I hear some of the crocodiles steal beer and float around belly up snoring water.

 

[Batty]

Blue ring octopus are nasty little buggers too.

 

[Don Hills]

... but then you have quokkas. A land of extremes...

 

[Wombat]

Smart Aussie Water Rats

 

[restorer-john]

Smart Aussie Water Rats

Wonderful. Send a truck full of those rats up to Queensland.

 

[Feargal]

I worked with an Aussie guy a number of years ago here in the UK. He said nothing he'd seen scared him more than seeing (in the UK) a stag beetle - especially when he realised they can take off and fly! (they're harmless).

 

[Wombat]

Wonderful. Send a truck full of those rats up to Queensland.

Put some in your creek. They make wonderful pets, just like badgers.

 

[GrimSurfer]

Not ours, they bring their young to introduce them each year. They also like bacon, sausages and basically anything from our fridge I was going to throw out. I whistle and they come.

After the wonderful weather, spectacular beaches, and amazing surf, magpies are what I miss the most.

I let one of them in the garage one day to hunt for a bit of tucker. Later in the day, the same magpie swooped down and sat beside me on the step (like less than 15 cm away). He'd often come by to say hello after that. Remarkable creatures with complex social structures.

 

[Touchstone]

Not magpies, but related. And excellent musicians:

Don't inquire too closely about the butcher bird's banqueting habits.

 

[GrimSurfer]

I read somewhere that the Australian magpie has the most musically diverse call of any bird. After listening to them, and other Australian birds such as the kookaburra, I started to think about why this might be.

Drawing from some experience with high frequency automatic link establishment (ALE) radios, I believe the diversity and frequency agility of Australian birds is an evolutionary trait to ensure parts of the call can punch-out over the din of the bush. Rustling dry leaves, the roar of cicadas etc. can be almost deafening at times. Since it's impossible for a small bird to compete on a sound pressure level, the only alternative is to cleverly use the frequency spectrum to get warning and mating calls out.

The aboriginals seem to have adopted the same approach with the bullroarer, which uses frequency modulation as a way of generating sound above the din of the bush.

I have no idea if this is true... it was just a thought that came to me during my many bush walks in a country of unparalleled beauty.