A bit off-topic but an interesting one. Last Saturday we had dinner out with several friends when one of them noticed “something” moving fast on the retaining wall from the back fence. We had a closer look and there was a nice and big male funnel web spider on the wall. I took an ex coffee jar and placed it over the funnel web. It slowly climbed inside so I managed to close the lid. I was “quite” scared. If you didn’t know “Funnel-webs are probably one of the three most dangerous spiders in the world and are regarded by some to be the most dangerous“. (via Wikipedia).

Photo: Male funnel web about 5cm long.

Sunday I took the spider to the Hornsby Hospital. No, it was not sick :). They are on the list of collection points from the Australian Reptile Park. They milk them and use the venom to produce anti-venom.

On the bright side we also discovered we have a blue-tongue lizard. This makes me very happy as the blue-tongue is a beautiful lizard that helps keep the yard clean of slugs, snails and caterpillars.

Photo: Blue-tongue lizard about 30cm long. 

I hope it settles around our house for good.