It is spring in Australia and that means that the garden has been invaded by multitudes of tiny, newly hatched critters.
The weather was splendid over the weekend and that meant spending the day out in the garden. It also meant I probably spent as much time taking many breaks with my camera chasing the tiny beasts as I did actually doing something to help…
We have a load of new plants to put in the garden bed we had to clear out after a tree fell on it a few months ago, and while we were out there I found a few of these tiny mantis walking on one of the new plants.
They were very cute and so tiny (about 1 cm long) they were walking from leaf to leaf on the spider webs. They were quite hard to get a decent picture of, each time they saw me looking at them they would retreat to the other side of the leaf they were on and I would have to start all over again!
tiny mantis
That little mantis is beautiful – so frail; almost see-through!
They were amazingly tiny, it was only luck that led me see them at all. They have a dark green stripe running down their back and it gave them away on the lighter green of the plant.
Amazing what you find when you look for it 😀
Oh what a lovely pic Metan! Btw I saw one of those tiny stick spiders you posted about! I only noticed it at all because you’d primed me with your pictures. 🙂
Glad you like it and I’m so glad you saw one of those whip spiders 🙂 It is funny, because I look for critters in the garden now I see them everywhere even when I’m not looking!
-grin- ‘It’s just a jump to the left. And then a step to the right.’ And suddenly your whole perception changes. 🙂
When we are out in the bush number 2 son is looking for broken pottery and glass for his collection, we are all looking for bugs, and I’m also looking for flowers and fungus. It is amazing what you see when you get your eye in. 🙂
I agree. I guess to our eyes they are all just patterns and we respond to the ones we are passionate about.
p.s. Have you ever considered taking your hobby and turning it into a book – a sort of Secret Life of Gardens kind of thing? Most of us have no idea that there’s so much life in just one, relatively small plot of land like a garden. I know if I came to your place your garden would like similar to mine and yet, thanks to your pics I know it’s actually brimming full of amazing ‘little’ things. Just a thought. 🙂
I hadn’t thought of that but I wouldn’t even know where to begin! I am not too sure that people would be happy to know that no matter where they are in the garden hundreds of eyes are probably watching their every move 🙂
I actually did say to the Man over the weekend that we must have most heavily documented half acre in the history of the world, It it not unusual for me to take a hundred photos in a day just of anything that catches my eye. Most of them I never even go back and look at, I just love the action of taking the photo.
I am so glad that my pictures have given you a new appreciation of what is out in your garden, these tiny little beings do their best to hide from the world which means they are mainly overlooked, a pity, because they are so beautiful 🙂 Even spiders, sometimes….
As much as I enjoy your historical articles, there’s something about your photography that really gets to me… yes, even the spiders. Your love of the almost microscopic is nothing like Miniscule, and yet I get the same warm, fuzzy feeling from both.
Thank you! You have made my day 😀
I’m so glad you like them. What I find out there never ceases to amaze me, I’m really pleased that other people are enjoying them too. (Just wait til you see the metallic fly in the next post 🙂 )
Metallic fly? On my way. 😉
You have a great eye, and affinity, so I second acflory, I can see you with a book of little things 🙂
Thanks so much 😀 You have given me more reason to go out there and take more pictures!