You never know what you’ll find in your garden – as one man discovered when he came across some minuscule eggs hidden inside a log. And while he was holding them, they hatched.

It was a beautiful day, and the sun was beating down on the garden. As one man worked his way across his property, though, something unusual caught his eye: some tiny eggs inside a hollow log. Then when he carefully picked them up, one of them wobbled and started to hatch.

The man in question is an enthusiastic imgur user, and it was on that site that he originally shared his story. Yes, going by the name of “maddabber,” he uploaded a series of photos that detailed the discovery that began right in his own garden.

It seems that January 3, 2017, started as a beautiful day in Oahu, Hawaii. The conditions were excellent for gardening, but the day was otherwise unremarkable – that was, until maddabber made his discovery.

Maddabber’s garden is decorated with hollow bamboo logs, and inside one of them the gardener spotted something. Indeed, the log contained a number of tiny white objects, which were hidden from the Hawaiian sun. And then he realized what they were: they were eggs.

Eventually, curiosity got the better of him, and he approached the log to have a look. Nestled inside were at least 12 eggs, some of which looked like they had already hatched. Unfortunately, though, there was no clue as to what had come out of them.

Still, whatever had laid the eggs had taken the precaution of sticking them to the log’s interior surface. No doubt hoping the eggs didn’t contain garden pests, maddabber managed to safely detach some of them, and the little objects were absolutely tiny.

In fact, each egg was roughly the size of a garden pea. While maddabber was examining the objects in his hand, though, something amazing happened. Yes, maddabber felt a stirring in one of the little eggs, and it started to move; it was hatching.

When he saw what was coming out of the egg, he couldn’t believe his eyes. The little baby crawling from the shell was green, vulnerable and adorable. Maddabber was witnessing the hatching of a newborn gecko, and it was small enough to rest on his fingertip.

And although maddabber didn’t state exactly what species it was, the creature’s identity as a gecko does explain the sticky eggs. Geckos that don’t lay leather-shelled eggs generally lay hard-shelled ones – and some species of gecko have a special technique of egg-gluing.

Image: Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust

Before deploying this technique, gecko mothers find a nice, smooth surface safely away from predators that will hold their eggs. They then use their rear feet to put the eggs in place and allow the adhesive coating to do its work.

Amazingly, geckos have been known to stick their eggs to sheer surfaces like walls or even ceilings. As for how the geckos get up to these inaccessible places themselves, that’s another amazing thing about these lizards. The secret can be found in their feet.

You see, many geckos display the ability to cling to surfaces with their toes: they use the pads on their toes to act like the suction cups that you might use to stick things to windows and smooth-tiled surfaces. Although not all species can do this, approximately 60 percent are able to.

But geckos’ feet aren’t their only unusual attribute. Indeed, you can forget having a staring contest with these little creatures because they’d win every time. In fact, practically no geckos blink; some don’t even have eyelids. And even those that do still use their tongues to clean their eyes.

They don’t just use their tongues for grooming, either. No, they’re a deadly weapon against garden pests. In this way, maddabber was fortunate to find geckos in his garden because they’re insectivores: their tongues are used to catch animals like crickets, fruit flies and cockroaches.

Much like frogs and chameleons, geckos have powerful, muscular tongues that can stretch like elastic. So when a gecko spots an insect, the appendage whips out at lightning speed and reels its catch back in. It’s the last sensation many insects experience.

But it’s not just the speed and power of the attack that takes the prey by surprise; Geckos’ tongues have an adhesive tip that glues their victims in place. Yes, once the strike has been made, there’s no escape from a gecko’s waiting jaws.

Finally, one of the most unusual things about geckos is how their tails have evolved over time. To be specific, many geckos are able to shed their tails in what is called autotomy. However, the degree of control over autotomy varies from species to species.

In some types of gecko, the tail comes loose when a predator grabs it tight enough. For others, the appendage comes loose if the gecko feels threatened. In either case, though, the tail continues to move once it’s detached, acting as a decoy while the lizard escapes.

Not only does the shed tail regrow – often within weeks – but some species even possess scales with the same ability. The regenerative capabilities of lizards are so amazing that they have fascinated scientists for decades.

Yes, experts have been researching the ability of lizards to regenerate their limbs for years, with the hope that these findings can be applied in medicine. Yet while there has been some progress, unlocking the secret to regenerating limbs like a gecko currently remains a pipe dream – for now. So if you do discover some tiny gecko eggs in your garden, all you can do is envy them.