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NIGEL the Magnificent Soldier Beetle

David Hooper

A skinny tiny critter 10mm long and 2mm wide climbing a pigeon grass stalk...sees me & heads back down...turns & heads back up...hiding from me behind the stalk seed head...arrives at the summit...eyeing me then surveying the view from way up there..click, click.

I check my playback focus and smiles all round.

This guy is so tiny but character all over his face...eyes popping...antennae waving...looking a million dollars in his resplendent suit.

Can't see his detail with the naked eye...but macro in focus...Nigel is a wow, wow, wow.

I'm discovering the mini-beast kingdom...invertebrates...a world of wonders...colours, bizarre shapes & tiny faces with expressions that blow my mind.

Opening my eyes to a world of bugs I cannot otherwise see...wasps, flies, grasshoppers, beetles, spiders...the smaller the better.

So now I go into the bush...my Aussie backyard...camera and monopod...tissues to wipe my sweaty brow...stalking and still...searching for a flash of colour...a buzz...tiny movement.

And if there was a crowd I know they'd be loving it...'cos its mating season for dragonflies and beetles ...even the hover flies are having sex in flight.

But there's only me and them in my Aussie backyard.

Returning each evening...red smile on my face.