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www.mdavid.com.au |
Inner-city natureYou don't have to live in a rainforest to see critters (although it helps). Some of the most bizarre creatures I've come across have turned up in some of the most densely-populated and built-up parts of Sydney. |
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This Titan stick insect turned up in one of the most densely populated areas of Sydney. It was almost as long as my arm. |
Nature-spotting in the suburbsIf you live in a place with a garden then you've got an obvious advantage. Gardens attract critters and while humans have had a bad impact on many species, some don't seem to mind living near people at all. One of the most remarkable creatures I've seen turned up one night when I lived in a high-density apartments area in Dee Why, in Sydney's Northern Beaches. It was a mature female Titan stick insect almost as long as my arm. That's it (or perhaps I shoud say, part of it) in the photo above-right. It's the kind of creature you might hope to see in some exotic rainforest, not expect to find on a letterbox among blocks of home units. It wasn't posted there. It probably fell out of a food tree. More information about that Titan here. |
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This large moth would be difficult to see on a tree trunk. But it was extremely noticeable when on my bookshelf |
CamouflageIf you live in the inner city, you might surprise yourself by taking a careful look at any outdoor spot where plants are growing. The moth shown above is exactly the kind of critter you might see on fences or on tree bark. But it's definitely not the only well-camouflaged critter you might find. |
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A highly decorative jumping spider spotted on a shrub growing in a large townhouse complex |
JumpersJumping spiders are cute, harmless and often beautifully patterned. What's not to love about them? With their big front eyes they are quick to turn around and investigate moving things, and are just as likely to jump onto them. These little guys will spend all day looking for the kinds of things you don't want in your house, like mosquitoes. I often see one or two jumping spiders wandering around in the room where I work. |
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This is not a sight you'd want to see if you were an insect. The large eyes of this Dinopis spider are very effective at watching prey. I found this spider in an inner-city courtyard |
WeirdYeah okay, maybe I'm the weird one because I find Dinopis spiders (picture above) beautiful. Here's a close-up of part of the face. Dinopis spiders are often beautifully camouflaged and therefore easily missed, so you might be lucky enough to have them in your courtyard or garden without even knowing it |
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Some types of frogs are able to live in densely populated regions. This Striped Marsh Frog turned up under a water heater at an inner-city terrace |
AmphibiansThen there was this other surprise encounter. The large Striped Marsh Frog shown above turned up while digging near a water heater in a tiny courtyard at an inner-city terrace in Sydney. I definitely did not expect to find frogs living so far from streams and the bush. This was another case where the colours of the frog matched its surroundings. We were careful not to crush the frog with our digging tools and to leave it in its spot. And more...I could fill a lot more pages than this with photos of the kind of critters you might find in even the most built-up areas. For example, I remember waiting for a train one day, at Waverton station close to the CBD of Sydney. The commuters looked bored like they always did but I was fascinated. Because behind them, inches away there was a wall crawling with literally thousands of millipedes, beautifully camouflaged. I've never seen such astonishing numbers of them (millipedes, not commuters). The funny thing is, a lot of the commuters would have been horrified to know they were standing so close to so much invertbrate action. But most people don't look carefully enough. I often used to notice rats scampering around the train lines in Sydney's Central Station too. They are completely covered in the grey dust that surrounds the train tracks so they blended in almost perfectly with the environment. I never saw anyone else notice them. But anyone with average eye sight would have been able to see them. If you look for them. |
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