The cricket season… and surprise symphony

My word the meadow is heaving with the chirpy chaps! Today the girls gathered them up in handfuls and examined them closely in a magnifying collecting pot. It was so wonderful to see irrepressible wildlife excitement  …and whatsmore NO adult or manufactured instruction was involved. 

I’ve had my own marvelling at grasshoppers lately. It happened when I wandered up the path and heard a wave of seed popping. The all important hay rattle bursting its seams and scattering it’s seeds with a pssst. I spent rather too long wondering what the link between my movement and the dispersal was…a wave of celebration, wind, approval or in fact the bounce of hoppers out of my way knocking the dry seedheads. I have never thought of them as agents of dispersal. But they are and the result was a musical 🎶 click, psst, click, click, psst, psst, psst. My own unexpected wildlife discovery.


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