Camouflage Failure

She can stand in the open without being noticed, but her shadow gives her away.

When I approached her from the side for the shot she was facing straight ahead, but as the camera went closer she swung her head round to look it in the eye. In a moment she saw that it was not prey and calmly  faced the front again.

This praying mantis nymph has been doing well for herself. She is already a little over 20mm, four times her original size.

One of the waxeye couples has fledgelings that they are still feeding. The chicks are very naughty and get themselves into scrapes. One is holed up in my bedroom as I write. The window is wide open, but it keeps fluttering close to the high ceiling. Another I found inside hitting itself against a window. I managed to catch it and hoped to get a photo of it in my hand, but it was so small that hardly any of it showed behind my encircling thumb. I could barely feel it and was afraid of crushing it.

Later: My son came to the rescue! The 3 metre high ceiling was out of my reach, but he used the leaf rake, gently catching the little chick and manoeuvring it to the open window. He made it look easy.