Natural Thing
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The eyes have it.
And the ears.
As I got out of the car I noticed movement in the grass about 20m away. As I looked to see what it was it stopped still and slowly sank to the ground as, I suspect, it registered eyes on it.
Water dragon, much like the last one only smaller, winter time thinner. But just as placid, made no move to run, no suggestion of attack. Up close s/he was positively relaxed.
Male or female, it doesn’t really matter to the sense of things. Only in consideration of other matters that really don’t matter here.
The fact is it is a wild, savage creature. Surviving on the edge of civilization and behaving with instinctive integrity, being.
All creatures have it, the absence of that self-consciousness that signifies ‘trouble’ in people – an emotional cunning.
It’s what attracts us to nature, the innocence, an honest engagement with natural intelligence in uncivilized form.
You always know where you stand with nature, no double think.
No thinking at all.
© Mark Berkery ……. Click on those pictures for a closer look
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Wild Garden
Gripping the side of the leaf for safety, lest she fall down into the darkness below.
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It wouldn’t do, to be lost to the earth, this fine late blooming bee. She sensed something … could be male with that headdress.
Could it have been me she sensed, the dark shadow above, or the heat of my hand close by. Sensitive, sensible, little thing.
She took the hand was offered, climbed on and set out exploring. Not too cold at all here, on another warm living thing.
It seems a long time since the small creatures vanished from the garden this year. A sense of things to come perhaps.
In season, but fitting to the news from around the world of the disappearing insects, our disappearing nature.
So busy being clever we forgot to tend to nature with a little love, and our ignorance is coming back to us, inevitably.
Not unlike a boomerang thrown by a novice who somehow gets it right, and turns to an admiring audience to take a bow.
Whack … get it right next time, maybe. But no gloom here, there is function in the self inflicted …
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It was on my mind to patrol the garden, maybe find a bee caught out in the recent cold. If I’m lucky.
And there she was … sitting on a leaf, waiting for the warm sun to shine on her in the shadows.
I lifted her up, and got a few shots along the way. She didn’t mind the heat of my hand.
Heat is life to a bee somehow living in the shadows of our winter.
When warmed enough she took to the wild airways.
Nature undaunted …
© Mark Berkery ……. Click on those pictures for a closer look
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White Socks Wasp
A common enough wasp around these parts, just not at this time of year.
These are usually much earlier to the bees nest, to lay their eggs.
Maybe it was just born, a little out of season perhaps. It’s getting too cold now for their outdoor survival.
I’d get back in the nest and wait for spring, if I were her. But that’s not the way of things here, life must be lived.
© Mark Berkery ……. Click on the picture for a closer look
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Dragon’s Delight
Red Dragon perched on a grass stalk by the dark water.
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Not warm enough for flight, much, but it soon absorbed some from my finger.
And took flight, but for a short time before landing again.
It’s a difficult existence for most anything, and everything changes.
Late in the season for this little dragonfly, it’s almost winter in sub tropical Queensland.
But the season is late and it was a protected spot, a small dam ringed by treed hills.
A nice quiet place where animated nature may present, in unique form.
© Mark Berkery ……. Click on those pictures for a closer look
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Butterfly Huntress
When what is necessary is done, sit still. Look down to sensation, through whatever, until it disappears. And keep going …
© Mark Berkery ……. Click on those pictures for a closer look
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In Blu
A flower spider, gentle looking creature … waiting without impatience for the right stimuli to leap into action … and deliver her deadly kiss.
Sitting, waiting … being a spider.
© Mark Berkery ……. Click on the picture for a closer look
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Beehaviour
Down on the pebbled concrete at the foot of the stairs, where the recent Curlew stood.
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A male, from the five stripes across its body. He made every effort to take to the air.
After watching him fall again and again I lent a hand. The one he’s standing on above.
A leaf afforded more opportunity for a few shots, within reach and firm enough for his weight.
From the other side and above it is clear the pollen sacks stuck to his back have been torn.
And all the while his tongue is hanging down and unsheathed, not its usual position or condition.
The one mandible visible here and above is clearly ok and in place. But in other images its opposite is clearly out of place, maybe tucked behind the tongue sheath causing it to hang – can’t really tell.
A few items on the table were good for colour, while he stood still. The blue suits him, nice contrast, all the better to appreciate his form. Weird and wonderful little fellow.
Moving and stopping, to and fro, made for an exercise in capturing available backgrounds from varying angles.
And variations thereof … uncluttered imagery. No emotion or thinking to distract from the simple being, or form.
G’day mate …
How’s it going …
A Blue Banded Bee. I found him on the ground below the flowers. He was far from home but behaved as if new from the nest, struggling to take flight as if just born with some unseen impediment. But perhaps it was acquired in flight on a windy day.
He seemed energetic enough, and whole except for the hanging tongue and the apparently missing mandible, had come from some ways to the flowers. But here couldn’t get into the air for more than a few seconds before falling back to earth.
The yellow on his back reminded me of how orchids will leave a sack of pollen on the backs of visiting insects, bees and wasp and such small flying creatures. What this was I think.
However, I gave him a hand, literally and by an available leaf to climb on. Often a bee having trouble at ground level will be successful from a higher vantage.
But no, was not to be, he just kept falling. So I brought him to the veranda table upstairs and set him up for a few shots before feeding him some sugar water.
He took lengthening breaks but he never gave up, always at the ready. And while I was momentarily distracted he disappeared. Into the wild …
He had done his job for the orchid, though he wasn’t done yet.
Just beyond the shade of knowing.
© Mark Berkery ……. Click on those pictures for a closer look
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The East …
She took position at the bottom of stairway for the day and wouldn’t be discouraged. … Though she kept a metre distance, vocal warning if I got too close.
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The curlew is used to the area, frequently seen exploring at night. … They find an out of the way place to wait out the day. … A little out of place on the stairway though.
I don’t mind, all are welcome, unless they prove to be intrusive – like the ibis recently eating all the seedlings. … But this one likes fish, so no problem there.
… of Bris, the Bush Stone Curlew came visiting. Walking past the bottom of the front stairway and there she was, just standing still.
They are commonly seen here at night darting about in search of … what things we search for at night, food and friends perhaps.
Never has one taken to the garden for the day before. Unlike most other birds these Curlews are nocturnal, and hide away during daylight.
That’s two night birds visiting the house this last week, and the Frogmouth was on the fence as I passed by, at arms length again, untroubled.
The Curlew did enjoy the cats leftover fish though, and even broke its safety space and came within a few inches while I put more food in the bowl – hungry.
If you can make space, and leave well enough alone – inside is out – they will come. The natural creatures, expressions of the will to live, and more.
Representations of the divine. The simple pleasure of knowing nature’s primary sense, a sense of peace.
© Mark Berkery ……. Click on those pictures for a closer look
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