We took a trip to West Malling yesterday to Manor Park that has a great wildlife pond. I was hoping for some Dragonfly action but the gods were against us as it rained continuously, so we sat in the car and had a picnic instead. I really like Manor Park though and it has yielded a couple of Swan photos in the past: here and here. Anyway we went home and lazed about for a bit until the sun decided to break through the clouds. This came at a really good time as Saturday TV is just dreadful.

Recently a community-driven restoration scheme has been completed just up the road, so we took a walk around the Bearsted Woodland Trust site. Photographically it was quite uneventful but I shall go back there as it is a free walk around a nicely landscaped area. I did see one Ladybird and felt obliged to take a pic. 

One of the footpaths into the Trust area runs past the Holy Cross Church, and, as I had only taken a couple of photos by this point, I felt the need for some fish eye church action.

It may have escaped your attention, but the title of this post hinted heavily that there may be some Grasshoppers involved at some point. Everyone knows that ‘Grasshopper sound’ and it seems hard to go anywhere remotely field-like on a hot summer day and not hear the chirpy chrous ringing out. When I am out and hear it I am always aware of the fact that it will probably never lead to a decent photograph as the Grasshopper can be quite elusive - it really is a needle in a haystack type situation. 

However, sometimes you get lucky.

As we arrived back home and walked up the path, the front lawn (for lawn read unkempt scrubland) was alive with movement. Closer inspection revealed there to be an invasion of Field Grasshoppers. The macro lens was re-applied and I spent a rather hot twenty minutes laying on the ground watching Grasshoppers jump past my face… and here are the results…

Perhaps the moral of this story is always look close to home as you never know what you will find. I woke up fairly early this morning to see if they were still going mad, only to find that it was pouring with rain. The Great British summer continues to delight and frustrate.