Stickin' around

As usual I was performing my morning before-breakfast routine in order to silence the meowing and increasingly loud squawking of chickens so that I could sit down to a slightly more peaceful meal.  After feeding the marauding meow monster, I opened the backdoor and stepped out to the barrel of chook feed.  It was then I twigged that the balustrade on the ramp had grown an extra rather long appendage overnight.  Although its mind tricks were making it look rather like a stick, it wasn't working quite so well for matching the colour of the rail.  Behind the stiff posture and poker face I could imagine the tiny titan insect brain repeating "blue stick, blue stick, blue stick -aaaaargh Don't look at her! Stay calm and still like a stick - I'm a stick, I'm a stick, I'm a BLUE stick."

It even played the game and kept its cool long enough for us to get up close and personal and take some snaps.

Oh hi guys, mind if I hang around for a while?

I think the blue mantra is starting to work

A little searching on the net revealed our stick insect matches most closely with the descriptions and photos of the Titan Stick Insect (Acrophylla titan) and a mature female at that judging by her approximate size.