Nature's Place

The Wilds …

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Looking to see …

© Mark Berkery ……. Click on those pictures for a closer look

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Friends …

… of a kind.

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Phew … made it.

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Wink …

Recycling some old potting mix in a bucket in the garden that became a trap for a lizard. It fell in.

Don’t know how long it was in there, it wasn’t exhausted yet but it was glad to see me. Clear as day.

Well, don’t know about ‘glad’ but as I lowered a stick carefully in to assist it climb out it clearly took advantage.

I drew the stick up the inside of the bucket and the lizard leaned into it, hooking one leg over it so as not to fall back down.

It worked. As it turned out the lizard was quite tired after its experience and it took a while for it to recover, allowing me a few shots.

These lizards, skinks, are everywhere in the garden, often seen scuttling into some shade or shelter, from preying birds mostly.

Since then I have come across a few of these little lizards active in the open, seeing me but unconcerned

© Mark Berkery ……. Click on those pictures for a closer look

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Longhorn …

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Long-horn … after their long antennae, a sense organ they use to detect their world.

It stopped long enough for a few shots, maneuverable for different backgrounds.

A kind of beetle rarely seen in the garden, with its unusual colour.

Then, without warning, it took to the air and was gone.

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Looking in the garden is suggestive of looking inside, when still enough to see.

Down in the pit something moves until focussed, its nature examined.

Eventually it is gone and something else emerges.

Until it doesn’t … if it does, complete.

© Mark Berkery ……. Click on those pictures for a closer look

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See No Weevil

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Sheltering from the rain. Possibly recovering from a fight.

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You can see the right mandible has been severed – click on it, maybe by another’s stronger mandible.

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A different kind of weevil, a different aura too.

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Proud thing …

With a ‘little’ rain some of the gardens inhabitants, legged creatures, climb up the other inhabitants, plants.

It’s a way of surviving, it avoids drowning and other dangers and probably makes for some unlikely encounters.

The first weevil looks ok at first glance. Then you might notice its drooping antennae, and its broken mandible.

It’s clearly been in a battle with something, probably a bigger one of its kind, for mating rights I suspect, and looks all done in.

The second one is a beauty, well groomed and completely intact, looking proud too. Maybe the winner of that battle.

That’s living, both the good and the not so, and they take it in stride, instinctively. What else could they do … and remain viable.

With our capacity for reflection we can choose what we acknowledge, beyond good and bad, when we can.

Everything in its time …

© Mark Berkery ……. Click on those pictures for a closer look

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