Rock stars

Today I have another group of photos I took while staying at Mom and Dad's a couple of weeks ago, these from a walk in the woods I took with Kaylee. A stream cutting down the mountainside during Irene deposited a truckload of rocks and gravel by the sugarhouse I photographed a couple of times last year. As I wandered around along the rocks, I noticed some movement out of the corner of my eye, and was able to get some nice shots of a grasshopper against a fairly neutral background:





Based on my multiple viewings of A Bug's Life, I'm pretty sure this particular grasshopper is in the middle of molting:



The crickets I saw were a bit more skittish than the grasshoppers, making it a bit harder to get close enough for a decent shot. Still, I managed to pull off what I thought were a couple of good ones:





Finally, a snake that darted out from under a rock I was about to step on:



Unlike the garter snake I saw earlier this summer, this dark brown/black snake (a coloring I've never seen in person before) was rather camera shy. As a result, this is one of the few in-focus pics I got of it: