Today I was on a mission to hunt for Grasshoppers and Crickets, so armed with my ‘Field Studies Guide’ I headed to my first meadow. Entering a meadow, the intense colours, shapes, depths and activity is just incredible, although the tops of the long grasses are slowly drying there is still so much to see.
Firstly, the Marbled White Butterflies caught my eye, this distinctive, medium sized butterfly with black chequered markings is currently on the wing in spectacular numbers. Amongst the Birds-foot Trefoil I could successfully identify two Meadow Grasshoppers; I was off to a good start!
The Cinnabar Moths were in full force this morning, these vivid black and white day flying moths are often confused for butterflies, their bright colour perfect for warning predators off. I spotted a Large Skipper and as I looked through my binoculars and scanned the area more and more appeared, resting between grasses and wildflowers.
A Meadow Brown Butterfly landed on the footpath on the short grass and next to it a menacing looking Flesh Fly, if you have a strong stomach look this one up it is quite revolting. Further along on a slender grass stem a ‘small grey nymph cricket’ had caught a moth, spinning it around the grass to keep hold of it. Now only 8 metres into the meadow and my head successfully giddy with the need for more research into Crickets and Grasshoppers, I decided to take a wider look around.
Yellow Agrimony flowers are looking wonderful through the meadows, mixed with purple Self-heal and Tufted Vetch. Above Skylarks sang, Chaffinch and Linnets moved around the hedgerows, a Small White landed on the footpath to bathe and the gorgeous sight of a White Throat saw sat up in a Hawthorn. As I turned back for one last look in the meadow before I left a Great Black-backed Gull flew low across the top of the meadow looking enormous compared to the smaller species I had just been admiring. Back in the office and many questions to Katie later she handed me ‘an idiots guide to grasshoppers and bush-crickets’!!!