"The beetle and the marble... an adventure"

I rescued this wee chappie from the butterfly water bowl - it has a layer of marbles in it and usually just enough water in it to cover them, but after it rained it filled a bit deeper. Checking the bowl I found a hover fly and this beetle (which is a Gastrophysa polygoni I'm told) paddling around in the water so rescued them both. The hover fly took a couple of minutes to dry its wings and fly off. The beetle was busy exploring the wet marble it was stood upon after I rescued it. It has the most amazing coloured green iridescent and orange-red body. I did try and persuade the beetle to climb off the marble onto the bench but it was having none of it!

The common Garden Spider (Araneus diadematus) babies

Every year in late May / early June common garden spiders hatch. This year they did so on my storm porch wall. Here they are in one of several clusters of the cutest tiny yellow spiders.

Collared dove chick July 2020

One of this year's collared dove chicks having a good look around the jungle from his perch. He was totally unfazed by me taking photos and video of him.