Ah Glasshopper

Field Grasshopper (I think)

The Curious Fish and me were just enjoying a cuppa (30/8/11) when I heard a sequence of chirps (no it wasn't wind) which caused me to peer at my greenhouse side. Lo and behold perched happily on the glass was a grasshopper.
So what!! I can hear you all yelling.
Well we've lived hear since 1997 and its the first grasshopper I've been aware of in our garden. I can only presume it was disturbed from its vegetarian nibblings by the activity on the building site to the rear of our property. It also appears to be in its mating finery so that may have something to do with it.

Its visit was only fleeting and I only had time for a hasty photograph before it disappeared.  I find identification of Grasshoppers difficult as they look alike in many ways and many of them like the one above can turn up in brown, green, grey or reddish colours.

The title of this post is a homage to the 1970s TV series Kung Fu in which David Carradine starred as the warrior monk Kwai Chang Caine. His blind Mentor/Abbot usually greeted him with the words Ah Glasshopper. 
To our everlasting amusement.