The "Dressing Room"

  It is that time of summer when I have to meander out to pick figs at dawn and then again at dusk.  There is a reason behind this madness and that reason is birds.  While I love my songbirds, they need to stop eating my fruit!  The two large fig trees stand between the garden fence and the greenhouse but even in those close quarters, dozens of assorted birds gather to munch on the ripe figs.  So, if I wish to make any jam for this winter, I have to "be up before the birds" and then do a second picking in the late afternoon. 

  It was during that late afternoon picking that Mark reached up to bend a tall limb down so I could reach the uppermost figs.  As soon as he took hold of the branch, he called my attention to a visitor...or maybe we were the intruders in this case.  An Obscure Bird Grasshopper was perched up among the leaves.  We had interrupted a very important time for this critter.  The grasshopper was still a bit sluggish from shedding its outer layer much like a crab sheds its shell during growth.  The grasshopper had outgrown its outer layer and need to shed into its adult size.  The process is called molting and is the way insects grow.  

  Just yesterday, I had remarked to Son that something was munching the upper leaves of the fig trees.  I now realize that the Bird Grasshopper was trying to "fill up" so it would survive the molt.  Most critters that go through such a molting stage as this, do not eat during the entire process.  Their bodies are too soft to seek out food and because of this softness, they try to stay hidden.  During their soft stage, they are easy targets for any predators even those smaller than themselves.  

  Even though these grasshoppers can do much damage to plants, I decided to let it go on its merry way.  We let the frightened critter ease its way under a thick batch of leaves as we continued picking figs around it.  It was a rather nifty find, though, as seeing both the freshly molted grasshopper and the old shed is a bit unusual.  You just never know what might be lurking in the fig trees!