We had some much-needed rain today, though nowhere near enough to soften the parched ground, let alone refill the aquifers. But because of the damp weather the temperature dropped in a way that must have shocked the village Odonata, because they all stayed firmly tucked up in their beds and declined to come out to play, even when the sun did eventually emerge.
So I was reduced to chasing around after grasshoppers, which they’d very much rather I didn’t, and they were reduced to trying to ping away from me too fast for me to be able to get a lens on them. Most of them managed it, apart from one rather dozy Lesser Marsh Grasshopper in the pond field, and this Field Grasshopper in the garden which made the mistake of jumping onto the old yard wall. He must have thought he was well camouflaged against all the lichen, and to be fair, if I’d just been walking past I doubt I’d have seen him, but having caused him to jump in the first place I was able to mark his position and home in on him. When they realise that they’re in your sights grasshoppers tend to freeze, which is useful, but when I got bored with trying to focus on this one with 500mm of lens and popped into the house for the macro, he rapidly unfroze again, and by the time I came back – no more than a few seconds later – he was nowhere to be found.
R: L2, C11, D7.
