Clothesline Neighbours
Sometimes our backyard neighbours are be a bit more neighbourly than wanted. About a month ago my wife Bronwyn was collecting the washing from the line when she noticed a Shield bug (Poecilometis sp) on her clean slacks. Fortunately these days her first reaction to something with six legs is to call me rather than to squash it. Closer inspection showed it had also deposited a neatly arranged array of green eggs. Setting up the field studio I photographed the [...]
Familiarity Breeds Indifference
The old saying that familiarity breeds contempt may be a little strong but it is probably fair to say that familiarity breeds indifference. Things that we see every day, incidents that are common occurrences get swept to the back of our minds and are glazed over so that we can concentrate on the unusual. This is probably a hangover from our stone-age past where it was important that if it was game to be hunted, we would not only see [...]
Thick-Headed Birds
Each autumn in Victoria, Australia, Scarlet Robins (Petroica multicolour) leave the high country and return to lower altitudes. The arrival of the robins is often first noticed by early morning power walkers as the robins swoop ahead, keeping about one panel of fence in front of the walker. The bright red breast feathers of the male are set off by his black head and back. The female is not quite so flamboyant but is equally beautiful. Eventually the robins seem [...]
Don’t Move!
I well remember my mother with her Box Brownie camera, positioning me squinting into the sun and commanding me “Don’t move.” For you younger readers (under 50) a Box Brownie camera was about one step (maybe two) removed from a pinhole camera. Even with this instruction, blurred pictures were common. It is this “don’t move” factor together with this beetle, unimaginatively named the Red and Blue Beetle, which has inspired this post. Various people who are familiar with insects have [...]
Fries With That!
Nature photography is full of serendipitous moments. There are those times when you are quite delighted with what you have found, are happily photographing and then nature provides the “fries with that” moment, the perfect add on. This has happened to me on several occasions and today was another of those days. I was photographing a Pied Lacewing (Porismus strigatus) that a friend had spotted on a Grasstree leaf. That is if Grasstrees can be said to have leaves, for [...]
Seasonally Adjusted – A “Down Under” Perspective by John Tiddy, Victoria, Australia
“Seasonally adjusted” is one of those expressions much loved by politicians when they are trying to make a set of figures look better than they really are. In nature however I tend to think of it as having a different connotation. The calendar marks autumn as the months of March, April and May (those of you in the northern hemisphere can make your own adjustment) but regardless of the calendar, nature is not as clear cut. Is autumn simply a [...]
Wildlife on White: Part 1
A collection of some of the amazing animals photographed so far by the Meet Your Neighbours team, an international environmental photography project, developed to encourage an appreciation of the wildlife within our own communities. Featuring amazing photos by Niall Benvie, Paul Harcourt Davies, Piotr Naskrecki, Paul Marcellini, Clay Bolt, Seth Patterson, Sandesh Kadur, Mac Stone, Carsten Krieger, David Hunter, John Tiddy, Dirk Funhoff, Marko Masterl, Jerry Monkman, and Denis Palanque.