Spring has Sprung

Although some nights are still a little cold, Spring has established itself at last with increased insect life - being a good sign that the trend will continue into summer.
The early arrivals have begun to make themselves more apparent, one of them the Stick Insect.
This specimen was around 30cm long.

It was great to get a good shot of the most unusual mouth structure of this insect - one that works like a pair of sideways angled snips as the creature trims away at the leaves

Tiny Orb Weaver Spiders have begun to appear, as have a variety of caterpillars.

Im looking forward to photographing them with the new equipment purchased this last winter, with the aim to reveal new insights into their construction and behaviour.

Morning Dive

This morning was great for a dive, so I dragged out the wetsuit and braved the cold water so as to give the camera a run.
First off I came across a huge Octopus.
They are very curious and intelligent animals, and it was all I could do to keep the camera and keep a little distance from a creature that, once it latched on to you, would be very hard to remove.
Octopus have a "beak" much like a parrot and can remove a large chunk of skin when they are as large as this one was.
Amongst the sea grasses and in rock crevasses are, at the moment, Lobsters.
The water is still very cool and soon, as the water warms, they will leave the coast for their long walk to the continental shelf where they will stay till next winter.
This lobster in this footage was unlucky enough to be large enough to keep, and will make a nice dinner.

Hopefully the seas stay flat and I can shoot some more footage soon...hopefully of more Lobsters.