Praying mantis season soon here. My favourite insect. Some of the big ones fancy their chances at taking down a humming bird and I watch it, just a few feet away through the window, at the front of my house.
It’s a little wildlife area with bird feeders and humming bird feeders, and I see lots of stuff each day. It’s my thing in middle age and it brings calm and peace. Half an hour or an hour observing nature, and all of a sudden the stress melts away.
The praying mantis here definitely have wings. They stalk and move slowly, but their wings can get them away quickly if they need to.
A friend took this image of me coming off the water after a pretty epic kitesurf session this weekend just gone. Close to 4hrs on the water covering 62km of which 2km was airborne. Everything was absolutely perfect that day.
We had an unusual weather pattern overnight, heavy fog and just above 0 C followed by a sharp drop in temperatures. The fog crystallized around tree branches and tall grass - and somehow over water produces ‘pancake ice’.
This morning’s did not reach as high, just the tall grass, and I probably would have had more in the shot an hour earlier before there was any warmth in the sun. We are getting hoarfrost every morning right now, +C in the day and -C at night.
