Bug vs Wind: A Stick Insect with Stickability.

As aforementioned, I had to leave Stick Insect Metropolis behind, :( , and while I haven't found such a densely populated sticky community since, I have met a few on my travels. Yay.

I've also discovered that my phone can record bugs in motion. Yay some more.

Speaking of motion, and movement, and trying not to move in a counter productive way, I'm not really built for battling against the wind. I'm just too slight... When the weather is wild, I have entertained many occupants of cars that whizz past me as I try desperately not to become airborne on route to the supermarket. Lucky them. Sheltered from the gusts by their metal bits, while I try not to do a Mary Poppins. Grumble grumble. My spindly little frame isn't cut out...or perhaps... suitably assembled...for such challenges.

Anyhoo, we humans spend a lot of time complaining about the weather, but I think bugs have it worse, which has prompted me to start a short video series; Bug vs Wind, to highlight their daily struggles in this wild wind tunnel we live in. 

Our first film star is a sticky! Wahoo! Isn't she amazing. She's clearly got a system--go with the flow, but never let go... as you swing high and low... I like her MO... Inspirational stuff, if you ask me. Why pay a life coach/therapist when one can glean free pearls of wisdom for surviving in this adapt-or-die world, just by spying on bugs?

The video is too large to upload here so you'll have to wander over to youtube to admire this stick insect with stickability.

Hi-ho, hi-ho, watch this sticky go!

This last photo is of our film star taking a well earned breather. Such composure. Hard not to be impressed, really.

Bugs in love.

Romance is in the air again, in Stick Insect Metropolis. Don't these two just look like they were made for each other...

Climbing the walls.

I'm used to seeing bugs in strange places. All the same, I would've liked to have perused a copy of this sticky's itinerary. Where was he heading? Other than up the wall... Was he planning to go around the bend too? He's right beside my front door, so maybe he just stopped by to say hello...

His side profile is also quite fetching;

That little dark spot on the wall to his right is a moth. Maybe they made the trip together, an insect bonding thing. Or a competition...

Just to give you an idea of how far up the wall Mr Sticky and his winged companion were;

The light is just above my head, so it's quite an epic journey for a bug.

Later on that day, the sun offered another photo opportunity--a bug and his shadow! Yay! 

Btw, that's a bit of garden debris attached to his bottom, just in case you were wondering. It could, of course, also be the insect equivalent of a fashion accessory;

Once again, my subject showed how versatile a bug can be when a photo opportunity presents itself;

Work that camera, sticky;

I was faced with the familiar dilemma I experience whenever I see a bug far from their natural habitat...do I intervene? Provide some assistance? 

I've seen praying mantises climb the walls, presumably to lay eggs, but I do believe this sticky is a boy...and I was concerned about where he might end up, like underfoot. (Don't worry, I wrote myself a note--on a sticky of the other kind, actually--to remind myself to check for wayward stickys before setting foot outside...)

He stayed in this spot for two days, and then, sure enough, my safety concerns were realised when I opened the door the next morning and found him sitting on the actual doorstep. As much as I like to be greeted first thing by an adorable bug, nevertheless, intervention was most definitely required.

I hope sticky approved of the flax bush I put him on...

Raspberry maiden.

Dishes are not my idea of fun...unless while doing them I glance out my window and spy an exquisite creature like this lass. Perfect excuse to swap the dishcloth for an image capturing device instead, of course. How could I resist.

She--assuming I have made an accurate gender diagnosis--is dangling from a raspberry cane, seemingly effortlessly. I don't think I could dangle like that for very long, if at all. 

In fact, I'm going to rebel against the positive thinking brigade and propose that we should focus more on the things we can't do. And celebrate these things, and the creatures who can do them. In the interests of keeping our egos in check. 

Your challenge, should you accept it, is to spend the following week completing this sentence;

I can't ______ like a _______.

But back to more important things, like clever bugs...

This lass did have an admirer--other than me--a much smaller sticky lurking on an adjacent stem who I assume was of the male persuasion. Talk about a cute couple. Just watch out for those prickles, boy sticky. Not only the ones on the raspberry cane.

 Let's admire her spiny bits close up;

And here's another shot of her doing something that I can't, something remarkable;

Oh Sticky, you're-so-fine, you're-so-fine-you-blow-my-mind, Stick-y! Stick-y!

Romance isn't dead...

...at least, not in little critter land...

I reckon bugs can teach us a thing or two about the gentle art of wooing. Except perhaps praying mantises...and maybe not those black widow spiders either... Hmmmm....okay... I may have to rethink this hypothesis...let's stick to romance lessons sticky style, shall we? 

I didn't see many stickys over the summer. It has been an unusually hot dry one though, so maybe that's why. I'm pleased to announce that they are now back, on mass, stickys galore! And just as amorous as ever. Good grief.

You could be forgiven for thinking at first glance that there is only one bug in this photo; 

But if you look a little closer;

You will see that there are in fact two stickys, uniting as one;

 

No room for misinterpretation from this angle, which is why censorship is required;

But stickys aren't a love em and leave em, kind of bug. They stick together, in more ways than one. Here they are, post embrace, still embracing;

And I have to include this photo, because the female sticky even took time out from canoodling to wave at the camerawoman!;

But just after the salutation, a gust of wind dislodged the happy couple and they fell off the fern. Not to worry though, they clung to a flax leaf instead, still together. Such devotion. I am in awe. Don't they cast an adorable shadow;

When I checked back later they had gone from shadow dancers, to shade lovers. It was quite a hot day, so a sensible move, imo;

And here they are doing their "we are one" thing again. Ahhhhhh...;