A Dozen Of …
… flies. I think they are flies. A male and female, I think.
Otherwise I’m not thinking any more today.
*A few pix of nearby larva added below.
Him, I think … with two short antennae and blue eyes.
*Click on the pictures for a proper look …
Him again …
Notice, not a lot of thinking going on …
And her, I think … with one long antennae ending in a bright yellow bulb, with pinkish eyes.
From various angles and backgrounds as could be managed … she was a good model for a while.
No thinking here …
… or here.
Taking the opportunity to clean those wings, whether they need it or not.
Hello little one … She got restless and came up to the lens and tried to climb on.
She is a beauty, in her own right. The only ‘right’ that matters. Whatever that means. No thinking now …
At some point she ended up on my hand, enjoying the warmth maybe. Eventually I put her up where she’d catch the sun in the morning.
Larva (spitfires?) found on the same tree as the ‘female’. They do this thing, pointing their tails up, makes one wary …
Found on a nearby tree, maybe a different sort altogether – not my field.
Or these …
Also found on the same tree at another time. Larva of something …
© Mark Berkery ……. Click on those pictures for a closer look
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Black And White – I Fly
The fly’s actual length is around 12mm.
*Click on the pictures for a proper look …
The wing would be around 7mm long.
I have seen this fly a few times over the years but never got a shot until recently when it flew across my path and landed on a big tree I was inspecting.
It looks black and white to the unaided eye, no colours at all, but some hues and shades appear when you get up closer. A fly’s eye view you could say.
It’s a plain enough creature, unremarkable in a way, still amazing to be able to enter its world this way and see what another fly would see.
I look across and see what I would look like as a fly. I see fly … You never know, at the surface, the genius behind the form.
© Mark Berkery ……. Click on those pictures for a closer look
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Morning Glory Purple
At first, buried deep in the flower, supping on the nectar. Then caught it as it emerged over the pollen laden stamen.
*Click on the pictures for a proper look …
Wandering about in the colour and nourishment it didn’t stay still for long. Big pollen grains for good bee work.
My hand is never far from my subject. It came for the warmth that makes a difference in our winter shade.
Balanced on the edge of the petal, not yet ready for flight, it climbed for who knows what – security.
One other of its kind, on the flowering nicotiana, shy of the camera. Gotta be quick to catch these guys.
I put some old sweet potato in the ground and something else grew as well. The garden often does that, mysteries emerging.
This time it is a lovely morning-glory vine, where the passion-fruit vine used to be. A place for vines it would seem.
A few creatures visit it in its window of sunshine on a cold ‘winter’s’ day, taking what nourishment or shelter they can.
It’s the way of the garden, flowers as beacons to passing travellers, oasis of colour and nectar in man’s jungle.
A chance to live a little longer, in complete accord with life’s desire to live and live again.
How we are, how it is, in these magnificent little robotic selves.
© Mark Berkery ……. Click on those pictures for a closer look
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Rainbow Life …
Rainbow Lorikeet strutting about a corner of the driveway, being its beautiful colourful self.
*Click on the pictures for a proper look …
Scaly-breasted Lorikeet, taking time with the crumbs lying about. A little sunshine through the canopy lighting it up.
Rainbows in front of the water bowl, an easy gathering, didn’t mind me at my distance.
Rainbows and Green Scaly Breasted together. Not the best quality pictures, I know, but good enough …
Green Scaly Breasted cracking I don’t know what in its beak, little beauty.
A lone magical Rainbow, enjoying the supplement to its diet of nectar from the nearby winter flowering trees.
Alert, did I move too fast, or is it the lookout … for both kinds. They would be organised, if only loosely.
… rainbow in the sense of these colourful Rainbow Lorrikeets, and the Green Scaly Breasted Lorikeet.
They came to the garden recently, end of summer, so I started feeding them. Noisy creatures, frequently screeching loudly to each other. Piercing to the heart of me.
Flashing vivid colour across the garden in the warm winter sun, a delight to the eye. To the being that can be delighted.
Other birds come and go, the ever present Pigeons, and the lone shy Ibis. Each comes with its own characteristics.
Pigeons prefer the smallest pieces, like seeds. While the lone shy Ibis will take the biggest, or the lot.
The noisy Myna prefer soft bits it can shake about as if a worm, calling out to me on sight.
Chattering, prancing, screeching, preening, honking, bickering and playing for a meal.
Only the best bread for my garden friends, no cheap processed white.
It’s the least I can do for the pleasure of their company.
A pleasure, without excitement, not to be missed.
© Mark Berkery ……. Click on those pictures for a closer look
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Friends And Neighbours …
*Click on the pictures for a proper look …
… a few of them from in and around the garden.
© Mark Berkery ……. Click on those pictures for a closer look
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Green Gold Bee 2
A typical nest entrance, fresh diggings on the downward approach – gravity works.
*Click on the pictures for a proper look …
I saw quite a few of these bees and not one entered the nest backwards, as other bees are seen to do, to lay an egg.
And as far as I could see they always exited head first too, suggesting an excavation allowing them to turn-around.
A youngster maybe, just emerged from underground obviously. Or where did the clay on its back and wing come from.
Compared to the one above this bee looks mature, strong and healthy. Perhaps that’s an egg filled abdomen, big as it is.
Everything dies … and I only saw the one such. No sign of spiders but this nest site would have its predators. Crabs maybe.
Foraging in the daylight can be hazardous for a crab but they know when to run and hide.
An other chapter in the life of the Green Gold Masked Bee, from the edge of the world into deep nature.
It all happens on the edge of a huge coastal mangrove forest, where a tidal creek separates it from the mainland and man’s mind made stuff.
The nest entrance is a comfortable size, and they always go in head first, but then they always come out head first. So, it seems, they have room in there to turn around.
At first I thought they could only be laying their eggs for hatching in the spring, until I saw the one that spent some time cleaning hardened clay from its back. It looks like a youngster to me.
You can see how it uses the hooked feet to scrape at the dirt. It suggests to me either a cave-in or it has just emerged from incubation. It looks smaller too, less full bodied than the others.
And then there was the one dead bee I found. It looks to have a torn wing suggesting struggle of some kind. Maybe the crab kind.
Just below the nest site are the homes of small crabs that peep out and occasionally risk a journey across the dark mud.
They are shy creatures, not comfortable being photographed, but they can be tricked into it.
Things to do, lives to live … the comings and goings, remind me of … ways to be.
© Mark Berkery ……. Click on those pictures for a closer look
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Green Gold Bee
After a while a little luck, it landed on my stick, the easier for me to get a few shots.
*Click on the pictures for a proper look …
This certainly qualifies as bee activity. Regurgitating liquid takes its full attention, so it doesn’t notice me.
Once it lands and has something to do, after a little time it becomes absorbed and exclusively focussed.
Preening is one of the natural creatures favourite activities. Here ‘wiping’ its feet down its abdomen to the rear – combing.
Caught a little sunshine on the eye, refracting to the colours of the rainbow. A little magical sunlight in the lens.
There’s a place along the way, an opening onto a tidal creek, where people sometimes fish, and birds call loudly after a while.
I sometimes stop there to have a look at the water passing, and anything else that might be, small black crabs peeping from dark holes.
Today, as I came to the edge and looked down I saw a swarm of small bees flashing green in the afternoon sun, flying to the bank beneath my feet.
On closer inspection I could see they were each disappearing into a small hole in the clay, many diggings still visible, at and above the high tide mark.
I stood and looked for a while to see what was happening, and if there was any opportunity for a few shots of these fast moving new-to-me non-stop bees.
Camera at the ready to move in for a shot, I positioned myself and waited to see if any would land on my left hand as I held it outstretched in the sun.
After a while standing still one bee then another landed and did what bees often do, sat and rested, preened and blew ‘bubbles’, but not on my hand.
Instead they started landing on the stick I had set standing in the mud, the one I usually have with me and use for so much besides just a stick.
After a while in the hot sun, bothered now by clouds of tiny midges – you have to endure a little hell for a little gold, one presented.
And another … so I went to work, the easiest part of this particular shoot-out, and took what angles and focus were afforded.
These are some of the best … of this metallic green and yellow masked bee … so far.
Now, if only … but if can never be.
Time’s up … for now.
© Mark Berkery ……. Click on those pictures for a closer look
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Little Wonders
Orange Tail Resin Bee mucking about … in the mud left for them to use in sealing up their nest entrances.
*Click on the pictures for a proper look …
Flower beetle, doing what they do. In this case not a lot … sitting on a leaf, a wandering now and then.
A fine Fly feeding on the butterfly bush flowers. A sup from nature’s cup.
Caterpillar enjoying the native pink crocus flower. They get a pot, I get a pot. Each to their own, more or less.
Bug visitor, didn’t stay for long and didn’t come back. Off journeying in the wild.
In praise of a flower, a Drone Fly bows. They have their season, long gone now.
A common enough fly in the garden, a Greenbottle Fly I say – because it’s more green than blue.
Fairly big Leaf Beetle enjoying a munch on Eucalyptus. What a digestion it must have.
And a little Shovel Head Beetle, on my finger. Landed at my feet while hanging out the washing. Took to the sky after a little sun.
Every little thing perfectly fitted to its place in the great Earth machine.
An expression of intelligence from an unknowable source.
Unknowable, but not beyond sensing and being.
Where there’s the will …
© Mark Berkery ……. Click on those pictures for a closer look
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Karingal …
*Click on the pictures for a proper look …
… 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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Nature's Place 
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