Tiger sex

I awoke late this morning - too much internet poker in the wee hours. If you want to make a study of human nature, play some Texas Hold'em and you will find out what a ruthless, vindictive creature homo sapiens is!

I found a spotlight notification for the 'camo' blip that rather surprised me, so I headed over to check it out. The 'camo' was not there but I was overwhelmed by the top quality images that were. From feeling sluggish and not wanting to do anything, I was inspired and could not wait to grease up and get out there.

My first thought was another attempt at the potter wasp 'head-on' shot that I have been chasing, but unfortunately Mr Wasp was not at home today. I realized that you cannot just go out and decide to pick up one of those special blips, the blip monster decides when you get those, but like a raffle prize, 'you have to be in it to win it', just being in the blipping fields, prepared to get mud on my chin, was all I could do.

After the tiger beetle a few days ago, I was paying more attention to the ground and it was not long before I spotted another. He was making short lightning runs of a few inches, then pausing for several seconds. This made following with the camera difficult, as each time he moved, I had to shuffle up again. I was not bothered about taking general shots, I already had plenty of those for my collection. I was mainly after an 'in your face' macro of those powerful jaws, but it was not happening.

Then he started to creep forward a step at a time. A hunting/feeding shot would certainly fit the bill. I scanned ahead of the beetle to see what he had in sight and to my surprise, another spotted tiger beetle - this was going to be very interesting.

When he got to within about two inches, the other beetle made a run for it - BAM! - with the stealth and ferocity of a tiger, in a millisecond he was on top of the other beetle. At first, I was not sure if this was mating or breakfast. There was no love going on here, it was more like watching a bull rider doing the dance an a very angry bull - she rocked and she rolled but nothing could shake off this amorous tiger.

After a minute or so, things settled down and I was able to collect all the images that I wanted. I guess we can see another use for those powerful jaws - with them clamped around the female, she was not going anywhere

Good start to the day - well happy.

Dave