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of the blue grossbeaks, and on Nov. 12 the nuthatches return to the feeder from wherever they have been all summer. The last cricket chirps sometime between Nov. 15 and 20.
High summer is the liveliest time of all. In late July the ‘empty’ field contains more than a million insects per acre, mostly harmless to humans, living a short busy life in the sun. Dirtdaubers dig in the dry soil, grasshoppers feed on the tall grass, and praying mantises feed on the grasshoppers.
Lots of these insects are quite new and frightening to city folk. I tell them they won’t sting if your don’t go near them, but somehow guests don’t quite believe me. The idea of living amongst so much activity is disturbing to them, and they would like to reach for the can of allpurpose bug spray.
Our grasshoppers like to jump on the bodywork of vehicles. They are probably no different from anybody elses’ grasshoppers. As we drive through the field they cling to the hood despite the airstream, and they will travel for miles before letting go. The record-breaker was a brown grasshopper that clung to the car antenna and traveled with us for 24 miles before jumping off.
I remember how on one of these high-summer insect days a polite city couple visited us for lunch, a walk in the garden, and then afternoon tea. We sat on the verandah and listened to the buzzing and chirping in the hayfield. It was too hot for the birds to be flying, and if there were any snakes around, they were hidden in the grass. The whole visit had been very pleasant, and our guests returned in the late afternoon to the city.
It was the next day when we heard the true ending to the story. When they arrived home, the wife went upstairs to the bedroon, and the husband was in the kitchen. There was a terrible scream, unlike anything the husband had ever heard before. He rushed upstairs, two at a time. There was his wife, standing by the bed. She had started to undress, and there between her skirt and nylon slip was a green, 2inch long, grasshopper. The sight of that ugly thing, plus the realization that it must have crawled in back at the farm, and have ridden with her, unseen, all the way back to her bedroom was too much to take.
I don’t look on it that way though. I think that green, bug-eyed grasshopper only wanted its day in the city.
Gerald Hawkins is a world-reknowned astronomer and author, whose books include “Stonehenge Decoded” and “Beyond Stonehenge. ” Now a resident ofWoodville, he will speak on England's mysterious crop circles at Blackwater Homestead on Sept. 29.
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