A very green photo. There are delicate white coriander flowers and, almost in the centre, a tiny striped ladybug 🐞
Today's #GardenFriend.
It's storming and a little wild this evening but earlier today was lovely. Here's a little striped ladybug (Micraspis frenata) sitting on coriander flowers.
A grey butcherbird (Cracticus torquatus) perched on a verandah railing and looking intently at me as it sings. The backdrop is heavy greenery and a grey sky.
The same bird - it has hopped to the back of the chair opposite me and it's beak is lifted in song.
Same bird - turned slightly to the side with its beak open as it warbles its beautiful song. This pic shows the bird's lovely plumage - black head and eye, slate grey wings and pale whitish grey under chin and chest. It also shows the pronounced hook on the end of the top beak that gives this bird such a fearsome reputation as a predator.
New year's day vocals provided by a visiting grey butcherbird - on the railing to start with then it hopped to the back of the chair opposite me while I ate a late lunch.
#GardenFriend
#WildOz
#Birds
A chubby teddybear bee, with huge green eyes and amber fur is approaching the hot pink/lilac lacey flowers of a Melaleuca thymifolia. It has clearly had a profitable morning if the amount of pollen it is carrying is any indication.
I went for a little wander round the garden this morning before work. I met a teddybear bee (properly, Amegilla bombiformis but it was a morning for gentle names).
Food for the soul I don't believe in.
#GardenFriend
#AussieBees
#WildOz
A small (2cm) bright green Litoria fallax (aka the Eastern dwarf tree frog or the Eastern sedge frog). It is sitting on the very end of a knife handle on the middle knife in a block of 5 knives.
Somewhat lost #GardenFriend today.
Needless to say, it was returned to the garden 💚
#AustralianAmphibian
#WildOz
A large and somewhat grubby beetle. It has big black eyes and bigger chompers! The front of the shell is khaki and dimpled. The wings are lighter khaki with black splotches and where the front joins the wings there's a rusty orange part V ending in a circle of the same colour. Where the wings meet, they are black bordered. Overall impression is of a beetle ready for military duty.
This week's #GardenFriend
Turned up in a pile of eucymulch I was moving. I have no idea what it is (happy for suggestions) but it was both impressive and handsome.
#AussieInverts
#BugSky
Photo showing an American toad pushing itself on its legs to look taller, while puffing itself to look larger. This is a typical defense mechanism against predators such as snakes, that eat their prey whole. The logic there is: if I'm too big for your mouth, you better not eat me! Watermark identifying photographer as Geneviève Laurin.
"Who goes there?"
I met this little guy while watering my potted plants last summer. He was NOT happy with my attempts to take his picture.
There, there, lil'buddy, I am duly impressed by your size and attitude.
#DefenseMechanism #Herps #Toads #Amphibians #Animals #GardenFriend #SciArt #PhotoHour
Pic is focused on a black and bright blue weevil resting on a fine, leafy, green branch.
Today's #GardenFriend
Chrysolopus spectabilis (aka: sapphire/diamond/Botany Bay weevil).
Rescued from a pond and now drying out on a small Acacia paradoxa.
#AustralianInverts
Pic is of an Australian christmas beetle - a fawn scarab beetle which in the light shines pink and gold. A little jewel. It is sitting quietly on an old timber table.
This evening's #GardenFriend and a sure sign summer is round the corner.
#AustralianInverts
#Beetles
Photo is of a large (60mm) moth resting on timber boards. The moth is mostly fawn with black and grey patterning on body and wings. It has 2 strong black stripes on the top of its head.
The same moth with my rough looking hands holding a tape measure.
Another beautiful #GardenFriend for the evening.
I'm guessing Endoxyla literatus - the carpenter moth.
#moths
#AustralianInvertebrates
A very chubby caterpillar. It's about 8cm long with jagged creamy yellow, black and white stripes and a pronounced 'horn'. It's on a bed of mulch and bright green ground cover.
A stunning, chubby caterpillar found in my garden this evening while hosing at the end of a hot day.
Guessing it's some sort of hawk moth but I'm not really sure.
#Moths
#GardenFriend
"They ain't Heavy, They're my Babies"
#WolfSpider with her #babies #Beautyinnature #GoodMother #AlmostHeaven #WestVirginia #October #Halloween #scary (for some) #notscary #gardenfriend #ThePhotoHour
A big black snake sunning himself beside a wire garden fence on a garden pathway. The snake is beside a 12 foot piece of wood that the wire is attached to, and if it stretched out it is a couple feet longer then the wood. Sneaky snake and I have been friends for years; it had lived under a giant tree stump that eventually rotted away. My gardens surround the stump so I had been close to him all the time- we respected each others boundaries and so it went. For years I had told the property manager about Sneaky Snake and he just laughed it off as a joke. Until… the day almost two years ago when he brought our new pup out for a walk. I heard them go out the door, a few seconds later they both hopped (Floated)back through the door with him saying “ SNAKE ! BIG SNAKE!” I looked out and saw Sneaky Snake sunning himself. I had just redone the gardens and put fencing up, shifted everything about, so Sneaky had shifted its home a few feet away. It was testing out a new sunny spot. He believes me now! Sneaky let me walk around him or her for this photo; very well fed it is. We have never had any rodent issues with our chickens… and they do draw them naturally. Mice in the house- all time low. We appreciate how nature works on our little bit of heaven on a city block. It is a refuge for creatures. Anytime a snake is found they usually get killed by neighbors; they are safe here. Nobody stops to think of how beneficial they are. Property manager who was really scared of reptiles can now acknowledge that he rather likes them about, so much so, that last year he actually saved one that got caught up in netting in the yard. He had to get down and dirty to save it, but he did it and was proud of himself. He just saw one sunning on the cottage porch around the chicken pens, and that is where he saved the one previously. Our pens are snake proof so no worry about egg stealing there. We spot a snake maybe once a year if that, so it’s not like snakes on the plane. Respect nature.
Sneaky Snake One
I kept telling him that sneaky snake lived under the old tree stump for years- he did don’t believe me. Check ALT
#snake #sneakysnake #blacksbake #reptile #gardenfriend #prettybig #hedidntbelieveme #ArtYear #EastCoastKin #nature #rodentcontrol #citynaturepreserve #livingtogether
I was sad because I hadn’t seen a zipper spider in my garden this year but today I was rewarded with a big buxom gal getting in good trouble. Sorry for the lousy video, I didn’t want to scare her.
#gardenfriend
#zipperspider
#naturebeauty
In our garden’s first year, a toad family showed up and my son named all of them Mark Ruffalo. It stuck.
Today, I hollered up to him,
“MARK RUFFALO IS UNDER THE IRISES!”
Poor sprinkler repair guy paused, got back in his van… and left.
#photography #garden #toad #naturephotography #gardenfriend
Bumblebee,oil.
Never get tired of painting the little buzzers.
#bee #conservation #oilpainting #pollen #pollinator #golddust #gardenfriend #entomology #insects #Blueskyart #EastCoastKin #painter #summerfriends #time #wings #bumblebee #fuzz
My little Robin friend, always around in the garden and always makes me smile ❤️
#birds #robin #ukwildlife #nature #gardenfriend #garden #bird #gardenbirds #robinredbreast
❤️🦊 What a beautiful garden friend to have 🦊❤️ #nature #wildlife #fox #GardenFriend
Praying mantis hanging with the Rosemary.
#prayingmantis #mantids #Mantodea #insects #garden #gardening #gardenhelper #gardenfriend #gardensky
I'm having fun reliving some of these memories as I delete everything from FB & IG 😆
Turn up the sound 🎶 to fully enjoy!
Find something silly to smile at today ~ I know it can be difficult to do 💙
#gardening #gardenfriend #dance #deepbreath
🥰🐿💕💕 My little garden friend 💕 😁❤️
#squirrel #greysquirrel #wildlife #gardenvisitor #gardenfriend #bekindtoallkinds #animals
Snek is smol friend, snek protect garden. Welcome, snek.
🌳🐍🌳
#garden #gardenfriend #fauna… https://www.instagram.com/p/BT4puohAYGL/
