OH HOPPY DAY !

On 9th September it was still sunny and warm.  This character was sitting on a wall, sunning himself.  It may have become too cold now for him to survive.

Although there are only about 30 species of grasshoppers and crickets recorded in Britain, they are quite tricky to distinguish.  There are 600 species in Europe and 17000 worldwide.

Not a meadow grasshopper because they have shorter wings on top.  Probably a common field grasshopper.  His song is described in my book by Michael Chinery as "short chirps, like time signal pips at a lower pitch".

I like his descriptions of different grasshopper songs:

"like the sound of winding a clock",  "like a sewing machine",  "rather like an approaching moped", "loud and metallic like an old-fashioned dentist's drill"