Return of Jimminy

In the last couple of weeks, I've arrived home from work either later in the evening, or when the weather has not been great. As a result when I've wandered around the garden, I've not seen any sign of any interesting bugs.  Last year we had crickets, grasshoppers, damselflies and even dragonflies.  

So you can imagine my delight today when I found this young fellow sitting on the potentilla nearly a year to the day after I saw one of his forbears.  It is of course the nymph stage of a speckled bush cricket.  They are not uncommon in this part of the world, but its lovely to see it back again this Summer.  As you can tell from the stamens of the potentilla he's really tiny, but by the end of the Summer (if the birds don't eat him first) he will be about an inch long (ignoring his antennae).  I say he for convenience, but at this stage you cannot tell what sex he is.

The other thing that I have been missing, is the damselflies.  But exploring a bit further we seem to have them back too, which is good news. I've added a shot of one as an extra.

Happy days for a blipper with a macro lens!