Nature Calls
At A Liang’s recent Tea Lecture, we got to enjoy fresh air, lush mountain scenery, and of course, some gnarly nature! His friend’s farm is home to all sorts of interesting critters. Two that stood out are featured here – if you’re squeamish, skip this one! 
I arrived at their place around 10:00am to set up the teaware, and 
noticed this little guy hanging around the main door into the coffee shop. It had a very large web (about 5ft. across) from the eaves of the house to a small tree. There is also a large hive of bees up under the eaves, and they seem to be this fellow’s main diet. Around 11, the bees started swarming for some reason, and 5 or 6 got caught in this web within a few minutes, so naturally I got the camera out! For size reference, the body is about the length of my thumb, and the legspan is about the same as my hand with fingers outstretched. They are poisonous, although I’m not sure how dangerous to people they are.
Our ‘special guest’ appeared in the early afternoon (around 1:00, when 
everyone was here for lunch, naturally). No doubt about this one – he’s called a ‘Bamboo Snake’, and is a kind of pit viper. One website I checked says this one most aggresively attacks people, although the poison is rarely fatal (Click HERE for more information on poisonous snakes in Taiwan). He was hanging around in the bushes right next to our lunch pavilion, and the owner said he’d probably been there all morning (note above where I mention I was setting up the teaware all morning right in front of this guy!). Fortunately he’s
got a snake grabber (same as mine), and he said he gets at least 1 snake a week, and quite a few of these guys, so no big deal. He released it across the road in a small gully, and hopefully it won’t be back.
