For the first time in my life, last week I had a good look at a Katydid! I've probably heard them, and I've certainly heard about them, but I've never seen one to my recollection.
I saw it first as a big bug fluttering into the grass and disappearing, just a few feet away - but I saw where it landed and I had my camera in hand, so I crept close and there it was, pretty well exactly the same colour as the grass.
I had to dig out the insect book, and check on-line, but I quickly figured out it was a Katydid by it's appearance, about 2" long, a bit like a green grasshopper.
The flat space on the top behind its head is one obvious characteristic, but there are over 6000 species! They are members of the Cricket Family,
Tettigoniidae, and this one appears to be a member of the Bush Katydid group.
Luckily I had my macro lens on, having been photographing flowers in the garden, and I had a close look at the fabric of its wings - amazing!
There I was crawling around on the ground, with my head right down in the grass, following this Katydid. I'm so glad I've finally seen one, even if it does look a bit like a monster from this viewpoint!
I think I'm being hacked!
Over the past week or so, I've had between 500 and 1300 'pageviews' most days, and most of these come from Russia. Typically I get fewer than 300 visits, and mostly from the U.S. and Canada. I'm thinking that a computer in Russia must be set up to explore the internet, linking into sites it finds. I think I'll just ignore it. Anyone else have such visits?
Linking to:
Hi, Stew. For about six weeks I've been getting between 1500 and 1800 page views a day, but when I check to see what pages are viewed, the daily numbers only add up to a few hundred. Today I haven't been able to access my posts, stats or new post pages. I don't know if that problem is related to the page views issue. Nice Katydid by the way.
ReplyDeleteSuperb macro, this shows us how wonderful nature is. Yes, I have had a lot of visits from Russia,now I have looked at my stats. Following from Google... Yandex is a Russian multinational technology company specializing in Internet-related services and products. Yandex operates the largest search engine in Russia with about 60% market share in that country . Hope we all stay safe and not get invaded, maybe I will update all security measures.
ReplyDeleteGreat shots on the katydid. I do not have as many visits as you but yes for Russia and China. Today the highest was Bulgaria with 145. Of course I have been writing about our river cruise that included Bulgaria so that could account for part of the traffic.
ReplyDeleteLove the photos today.
ReplyDeleteYes to the Russian views. Don't know what to do about it.
I had the same experience with the Rusian views. I changed the settings and got it to stop.
ReplyDeleteYes, everyone I know who writes a blog has reported masses of hits from Russia and I have too. But as Steve says, these are not proper page views. I'm not sure there is anything I can do about it so just not paying any attention.
ReplyDeleteWonderful images of the katydid. You must have a really good macro lens there. Can you tell me why it is called a katydid?
It does look like a leaf that came to life, doesn't it? I haven't ever seen one up close, so thank you for that. I haven't checked my page views, but I'll do that now. I don't really care who (or what) looks at my blogs as long as they don't make trouble for me. :-)
ReplyDeleteHi Stew: I don't know whether you realize that you have posted the same article twice. Here is what I did and it seems to have fixed the problem with the "Russian invasion." Go to Settings, see HTTPS and make sure it is set to "Yes." This means that visitors are routed through an encrypted connection and it seems to filter out spam and malicious hits. As soon as I changed the setting the Russian flood dried up.
ReplyDeleteThanks David. Don't know how two copies of the same post showed up! I've tried your advice, so I'll see what happens. Stew
DeleteLet me know.......
DeleteYes, I also took some closeups years ago. They are fascinating creatures.
ReplyDeleteas to the hacking problem, nothing here. as to the 2 copies of one post, it happens to me every day and i have to always remember to delete one. i am aware of it, so it is part of my posting routine now. it's been happening for several weeks!!
ReplyDeletei LOVE your images...i had something similar just recently and i thought it was a grasshopper. i'll have to research it further!!!
Hello, awesome closeups of the katydid. After reading your post about the Russia views I went to look at mine, I also had more coming from Russia. I followed David's advice and changed my settings. Thank you so much for linking up and sharing your post. Happy Saturday, enjoy your weekend!
ReplyDeleteQuite a critter.
ReplyDeleteI do get some Russian visitors to my two blogs, but not an excessive amount, unless I'm insulting Putin over in the other blog, in which case I get a spike in views. I think my most read photo post has twice as many numbers of views as the previous one, and both are in the thousands of views by now.
I went to check and I too have had LOTS of Russian visits. Took Dave's advice and changed the setting.
ReplyDeleteGreat shots of the katydid. I've seen them up at HT.
Katy did beautifully posing for you. Great pictures.
ReplyDeleteI just love katydids! Great pictures. They will bite, though, so if you pick one up, get it by the wings!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful, wonderful Katydid photos!
ReplyDeleteI checked my stats - lots of hits of Russia - so I changed my settings - thanks for the alert.
Awesome photos . Lots of people mistake these as Grasshoppers as from a distance they look like them as they jump through the grasses , yes they do bite . I like to photograph Praying mantis as well very interesting creatures . Oh thanks for the heads up about hits from Russia I just reset my stats as well . Cooler here today and rain on the way . Thanks for sharing , Have a good day !
ReplyDeleteDon't think I've seen a katydid before in real life. Great shots, with lots of wing detail. I didn't have a Russian invasion, but did get lots of hits once from South America. It was a new search engine I think. Maybe Russia is try to hack into Hillary's emails and got you instead. Just kidding. - Margy
ReplyDeleteAh yes, the Russians! Probably trying to get into your computer to hack your personal information or use it for nefarious entries into other folks' computers. I've had hundreds of Russian hits on my blog too.
ReplyDeleteGreat find FG. Your macro work is impressive.
ReplyDeleteThese remind me of Steely Dan. "Katie lied. You can see it in her eyes."
ReplyDeleteAwesome close ups! The patterns on the wings are very pretty.
ReplyDelete