Dark Bush-cricket

For various reasons, I haven't managed to get out much recently, so I took advantage of a sunny morning to have a couple of hours walking round the Old Sulehay reserve. 

I always find this a rather tricky time of year for photography - round Peterborough the autumn colours haven't really started appearing and there aren't many fungi yet. But there were  a few survivors of summer  including this dark bush-cricket, one of a small colony on a ride margin. It clearly knew exactly where I was , and we both circled round  for some time before I was able to get a well-lit view of it from the side. 

Other hangers-on from the summer included a very large number of common darters ovipositing in the pools that have recently appeared in the limestone quarry, a result of the unusually high groundwater levels. However, these pools normally dry up during the summer (and sometimes much earlier than that) so I'm not sure whether any larvae will manage to complete their life cycle.

Several spring species were flowering again, including early dog-violet, primrose and bush vetch. This is not that unusual, particularly when we've had a fairly damp summer, but always feels a bit premature. The recent management of many ride margins has also encouraged a flush of wood-edge species including common gromwell, common figwort, wild basil and a single large plant of deadly nightshade.