raymie's Favorites

On August 11, 2021, we were eating at home and this bird, House Sparrow, flew into the house and landed on the TV cabinet.
Always around 3pm we throw the leftover bread crumbs from the meal on the balcony and the same number of birds always come, this bird was not afraid of us and went inside the house. It did not get scared when we passed by and left when it wanted to.

This 35cm mullet must have gotten stuck in the undercarriage of my vehicle when I went through the Ivanhoe Crossing in the evening. The stench by Friday morning alerted me and I managed to drag it out. Damaged the head somewhat trying to hook it out with a fish hook and line as I could not pull it backwards.

Ew.

Well, I guess I'm in the unique position of having killed a fish...with a ute.

Rough Greensnake catching an orbweaver spider. It got close to the web and then stayed there for what felt like 10 minutes (not sure it was waiting to figure out how to catch the spider or because I had disturbed it). After a while, it finally caught the spider and seemed to have no trouble eating it. My first time seeing a wild snake catch its prey!

I went outside to go for a walk, picked up one of my boots, and started to put it on. They're almost too small, so I had to do some wiggling to get my foot in. I often don’t wear socks in my shoes, which I think was a good thing in this case. My foot was most of the way in when it touched something furry. I froze, trying to figure out what it was. It didn’t move either. Then I yanked my foot back out and looked inside, and there was a little rodent in there! I pinched the top of the boot shut before it could escape, then called to my mom that I needed my camera right now and I probably shouldn’t come in the house because I was holding a boot with a rat in it. She brought my camera out and I took some adorable pictures before it ran back into the toe. Then I dumped it out and it ran away.

Merlin failed miserably on the first two photos, but said hoary red pool on the last. INaturalist suggested Black Capped Chickadee. Which I can kind of see. The bird appeared in real life it be considerably larger than a chickadee. But maybe that was an illusion with the white. I did find it’s nest so I can get more photos if need.