Lizards, Spiders, and Birds

If you have ever watched Animal Planet or Crocodile Hunter, you know that Australia has some pretty dangerous and amazing wildlife. It is home to some of the deadliest species like the Sydney Funnel Web spider, the Box jellyfish, the Stonefish, the Eastern Brown Snake, and lets not forget about Crocodiles! Well, we have been enjoying some of Australia's finest, gladly not anything that would threaten to end our lives, but a few not so fun things...especially when they are in your house! Of course, the kids love it and are so excited with every new thing they see!

Our backyard is full of these beautiful birds, but I can't seem to snag a picture of one of them! I actually did get a picture of one of the Lorikeet's, however it was one we found dead in our backyard and I didn't think that would be all that good to post a picture of a dead bird. The kids were all so sad for the little bird. We don't know how it died, we just found it under the tree one afternoon. Avery loves to draw pictures of the birds and we have a whole wall full of all the birds she has seen. They are beautiful birds, but very noisy and can wake you up early in the morning! We also have Magpies, which are black and white crow-looking birds that are very comfortable around people and have come very close to walking right in our back door!

Well, Daddy thought he would try to draw a picture, too!

This is what most of the bushes look like in my yard...huge spider webs everywhere! I have cleaned them off, but they just come back! Garrett keeps telling me I need to just embrace them and "be one with nature"... yeah, right! I have already called a few pest control companies for estimates.

This picture is hard to see and tell actually how big this web is. Let's just say it completely covered Braden's top half when he ran into it a few days later!

This little (not so little, actually) guy is right outside our patio door and loves to come out at night when it is dark...spooky!

Here is a nest of hundreds of baby spiders that just hatched right outside my bedroom window...nice!

These lovely lizards are called water dragons and are everywhere near the beach...luckily not in my house like the one below!

It didn't scare me until I tried to get it out and it started running everywhere. Yes, I did get on a stool and use a broom...I am sure it was a sight to see!