Wee Beastie

I'm starting to see more and more grasshoppers in the yard. Fascinating little creatures. Can you imagine having to dig your way to the surface after being born? Or have the ability to jump thirty or more times your body height and more than the length of a football field? On top of that having the ability to fly! How about having ears on your abdomen or the ability to play music by stridulating. Which is rubbing your back leg on the front of your wing to make music. Even though they are amazing they aren't friends of farmers due to the damage they can do to crops. Mine do a little bit of damage to the garden but not really enough to hurt anything. Here is one I captured off of the driveway photographed and then set free. Such cool looking little beasts. God bless, chris Image created with a Canon 7D and a Canon 100-400 IS lens at 150mm with a 36mm extension tube for close focusing. Camera was mounted on a Manfotto 055XB tripod with a Bogen 3055 ballhead. Camera settings used were AV mode, ISO 400,F11.0 at .60 sec.