Southern Oak Bush-cricket

Today was a day I'd been looking forward to for so long - picking up Chris and Lizzy from Heathrow after they'd been away for 10 months travelling round South America. Such joy when we spotted each other on the concourse!!

We had a reasonably easy journey back and sat down for a Chinese takeaway ordered by Ben and Sarah while we were driving home. This was something they'd both been looking forward to - the food in South America was mostly very good, but there was little opportunity to enjoy other cuisines.

I took them home reasonably early as they'd been awake for a very long time - and then spent a few minutes in the garden with the camera hunting for nocturnal insects. 

This Southern Oak Bush-cricket was the biggest surprise - new to the garden. It's a newly naturalised species in the UK and like many others is gradually making its way north, even though dispersal is limited by the absence of wings.