Nature's Place

They prefer red meat but a little honey on a cold winters day is manna to a green head ant.

Still moving fast despite the cold, built to survive Australia’s relative extremes of weather.

*Click on the pictures for a proper look … and click again

Once they came they came en mass, each a job to do lapping up the bounty.

No infighting amongst their kind, just a gathering of like minds for a single purpose.

If you wait long enough at a strategic position some will align so everything’s in focus.

Focus is everything, if you don’t have it you don’t have the object of it. Inside or out.

Come to drink at the rivers of light golden honey. If only for a short while, before the sun goes down.

Getting expressive, but nothing like they do when on a piece of red meat. Each to their own.

And when the feast is over the nocturnal ant comes along for the remains of the day. … Every little place on this earth has an occupant to fit.

To wake a green head ant tap the roof of his nest, he’ll come running. And no matter what he finds he will only seek out the transgressor of the peace. Not unlike us people, whether the source is inside or out, we seek peace, even through war – I know, I know.

So when these ants came pouring out of the nest they didn’t take much notice of the honey trap I had left for them, but they could be seen registering it. Left to slow them down enough for a few shots. When all the flowers are gone and it’s too cold for most small creatures to come out it’s time to innovate.

At first the tactic seemed to fail, they darted about looking for any foe and then retreated to the nest when they didn’t find one. And god help any they would find, that sting … But the message had gone into the nest, ‘there’s free honey out there guys’.

And so, after the aggressive defence had died down they came back out to feast.

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

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