Giant – ish
The mother of them all, undisturbed in her feeding.
*Click on the pictures for a proper look … and click again
A bugs eye view, sees the sky through the tree branches above.
There’s an elegance to the form, weighty creatures though.
A youngster, from the wing buds, you wouldn’t know it otherwise.
Manoeuvred for the shot and the background.
Full wings, sun dried grass below. A hot summers day.
Can’t blame them for loving the bush juice in the recent heat.
She breathes through holes in her side, I’m sure she can close.
Angles, gotta take what can be since they can only be examined on the big screen.
Perfection is not an option for pursuit, but may be encountered …
… in its natural being, a bug in an apparently messy nature.
These huge bugs are thirsty for the butterfly bush sap, in competition with the need of the blue banded bees for nectar.
They can have a few heads but when they start on the big stems they are evicted to another part of the garden.
Soon after they are back, such is life. Part of the gardens management, like watering. Doing it as I go.
It pays to be careful of judging what’s good and bad in the garden, the big picture rules.
Practises are subject to change, like the garden itself, and some stay the same.
For the love of it … what else.
© Mark Berkery ……. Click on those pictures for a closer look
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Giants
Sucking the sap that feeds the bud … To the right of the stem the leaf droops and dies and the bud below never flowers.
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A little closer … they can sit there for days, and I let them. But there’s limits, when they take multiple flower buds.
This one was a giant, nearly two inches long. Surveying its domain from on high. Possibly mother to the others.
They are impressive creatures, taking a break from drinking flower juice. Fearless, just doing what they do.
Others were clearly youngsters learning the ropes, buds instead of wings, destructive giants all the same.
Some had to be shown … moved to a native crocus, others to a vine rose. Nice colours, don’t know about the taste.
Gotta do the best with … creatures, life. And reprogram the machine when necessary. Rather, de-program the operator.
… visiting the garden, as big as my thumb. And they appear to be a family, of sorts.
They have a big appetite and if left to it they would consume the butterfly bushes.
But no, I move them on when it looks like they have done enough for the day.
They have a lance, or proboscis, they use to suck the juice from the new stems.
And once they settle in the new bud dies, never flowers, and that won’t do.
The bees depend on the flowers producing nectar to fuel their work.
So it goes, give a little and take a little. They can always fly on.
I usually put them on a tree that has a Hawaiian rose vine on it.
They couldn’t kill it if they tried, and they might enjoy it.
Everything has its season and these will leave soon.
Gardens change and need a little management.
Not unlike us, who may refuse an old habit.
So that the flowers grow.
The way we are …
© Mark Berkery ……. Click on those pictures for a closer look
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Karingal …
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… is an old scout camp not far from me, with a few dams in interesting terrain, wooded and hilly.
They sure do pick the best spots for their camps. There’s always some trails to ramble and water to sustain the nature.
Though it’s the end of summer, into autumn here already, there’s still a few creatures to be found where conditions permit.
This bug was alone on a leaf by the dam, a youngster by the look of it, with buds for wings. It will probably molt a few times yet.
We molt too, don’t we. By leaving the past behind so the new can be. If we’re lucky.
© Mark Berkery ……. Click on those pictures for a closer look
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Emergence …
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Then it quickly found it’s legs and ran up the tree towards the light, away from the shadow of my lens, born again again.
Walking the edge of the water treatment plant, that borders the local wilds, I saw a strange – even to these experienced eyes – thing.
I couldn’t make it out at first, it looked so oddly shaped, but after a few shots – so I could see closer – it became apparent it was a form of Shield-bug, in the midst of a rarely observed transition.
They outgrow their shell, exoskeleton actually, and periodically have to moult – usually there is a split along the back through which the new form pushes out. A very dangerous time for them, being immobile for the duration and soft, vulnerable – to some degree held back by the tight fit of the old skin.
Springtime is here again and small creatures are emerging everywhere. At first in smaller size, visible by their increasing numbers. With spiders hatching in the hundreds, a feasting of expendable form, everything is living off something else.
A cascade of life and death begins, by which another emergence takes place, those relative few that live to maturity, who make up the cast of earthy characters.
… and I’ll probably get a few pictures of this burgeoning operatic show.
© Mark Berkery ……. Click on those pictures for a closer look
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Canon 70D – Pany FZ50 + G1
Couldn’t resist …
A bug from my travels down the local byways.
Just thought I’d post a few samples of each camera, since I’m checking it anyway – in other places.
The same species bug, different individuals at different times. So it’s not really a controlled comparison, just what looks and feels best, for me. Because I’ve had my eye on changing cameras, for improvement of image quality.
I find the old FZ50 the easiest cam to operate, I can do it one handed most of the time and if I drop it I have another in the bag. :-) All shots from this cam are Auto Focus via the (A)rticulating LCD and through an achromat at around 4 to 5″ working distance. Keeper rate is the best at around 90%.
The Pany G1 has an Oly 50/f2 macro lens and same achromat as the others. Focus is manual via the (A) LCD – took some getting used to and isn’t always practical when subject is dark or reflection on LCD is too distracting. Keeper rate is around 30/40%
The 70D hasn’t been set up for macro lighting properly here. Shots by this are AF via the (A) LCD. I find this cam too heavy and can’t hold it steady for long enough – feels awkward. The keeper rate suffers accordingly. It’s a fine camera for everything but macro, for me.
All are JPG’s out of the cam and are post processed in exactly the same way, denoised and sharpened using the same settings.
It’s all entertainment really, not scientific.
They all have their qualities.
Everything is right.
And in its place.
© Mark Berkery ……. Click the pix for a closer look
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A Wave of Wasps
One recent day I noticed all these Ichneumon wasps about. They were flying around checking dark spots on the wood and anything upright. I have seen them before doing this, once, and what happened was the wasp turned round and lowered her pointed end into the darkness and ‘I suppose’ laid an egg, having found something in the darkness to lay it on.
They can smell or otherwise sense with the tip of their tail, very useful that, to a wasp. And it’s not really a tail, it’s an ovipositor, or egg depositor down which she delivers her eggs to a suitable place for growth and development – survival.
That’s what they do when laying time comes, the egg is laid on another creatures laying, such as a grub, and lives and grows on that. Nature doing what it doe, one thing living off another.
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Humans do it too, but they’ve gone mad and feed off each other now. Those movies about people going mad with a rage virus are a metaphor for the truth that seems hidden from most. It’s been happening ever since self reflection caused instinct to warp into emotional self interest.
The way we are. It takes every moments effort to keep that emotion from taking control, as it has with most people. But there’s nothing else worthwhile doing, so …
Into the breach, and see what comes my way …
Mark Berkery ……. Click any picture and click again to enlarge
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A Jewel of Harlequins
On the white flowered Hibiscus in the nearby bush is a small herd of bugs, Harlequins they are called, don’t know why – possibly for the distinctive symmetrical markings on the ‘face’. These ones are real beauties; they go through many different colours in their little lives, blues, greens and reds. And there are times when they can be found with developing wings that make them look like something from a futuristic car show, and very elegant.
Anyway, these last days they are this wonderful blue with hues and patches of green and red and iridescent, overlaid on a very purposeful looking form. A very attractive little jewel of the forest.
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You have to know where to find them as they don’t appear on all Hibiscus plants, only a few I know of. And then you have to know how to handle them, with care of course. But they also respond to a kind of attention so it’s possible to get a few shots without disturbing them unduly.
And when they are done sitting I put then back exactly where I find them. This one is on my stick, the one I use for stabilising the camera at times is also good for shooting on.
I am usually in the nature just for a walk these days as the little people are shy or just not around after the drastic weather of the last year, and health permitting – other bugs I am catching are from visiting children, no fun at all, the bugs caught this way.
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It’s a simple pleasure of mine, this walking and seeing or sensing. To see the colours and form, the movement and the life in it all.
And then I go home, to tend the wildy garden I have encouraged and nurtured.
Just for a while now.
Mark Berkery ……. Click any picture and click again to enlarge
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Dry Time
The long year of rain that washed the bugs away has been followed by a long season of dry, and few bugs are emerging that I can find, not even the Ticks. I had anticipated something of the sort with my gardening work, lots of seeds sown and plants watered with a compost area for bugs to eat and congregate in. The Possum likes the fruit as well. So it’s not all void of creatures to enjoy, albeit tiny creatures mostly.
Even so, everywhere I go there are maturing well fed spiders. It looks like food a plenty but could be a survival strategy, get a net up to catch what you can while there is any catching to be done. But we’ll see how things unfold.
What is coming can be predicted in the big picture, more or less, but the details are unknowable in their timing and context. That wonderful unknown.
There is nothing wrong with there being so few bugs, it’s just different. Last year they were so plentiful at the same times there are few or none this year.
The weather is very different this year, wetter, colder, windier and dryer at different times. And still nature is what it is behind, unmade, of a greater power than man, waving in time.
The one grace of existence, the unmade shining through.
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And here are a couple pix anyway. What a little wonder. And no sign of hunger. :)
Mark Berkery ……. Click any picture and click again to enlarge
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Petals of Pearl
I’ve been seeding the garden with all sorts for a year or so, not knowing what may grow, and every now and then a little wonder appears through the overgrowth. This one has been budding for about a week and finally opened yesterday, some – half of the petals anyway. And today it opened up completely to the spring sunshine.
It’s a little beauty and I’ve been working it to see what happens, image-wise. That’s one of the things I love about nature and photography, I never know exactly how a shot is going to picture – there’s the shot and then there’s the picture produced. And I don’t want to know.
A wonderfully creative way to spend a few minutes, or hours, in sense. To see what a flower looks like and is. The creases and shadows on the white that give it its texture, the shape of the petals that give them their magical quality. And the yellow, heart of the flower, giving up to the prince of light – the Sun.
Yellow face I’ll call it, in a halo of pearly white.
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It doesn’t have to ‘make’ sense, only to be it.
Whatever that means.
Mark Berkery ……. Click any picture and click again to enlarge
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Nature's Place 
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