There’s a little swamp in one of the turns at the racetrack. It’s populated with all sorts of chirping critters… There’s probably a huge amount of insect inbreeding since you need to cross the track to leave, and that’s a good way to become flat.
That would probably explain this thing. It fluttered in and landed on the arm of a folding chair, and then froze. Presumably, it was terrified at the sight of possible predators and was trying to blend in and avoid notice…
So as not to startle it, I slowly and carefully got out my camera and crept up at a glacial pace, telephoto lens zoomed in to the max…
I silently snapped a couple pictures, crept closer, refocussed, and shot some more. It didn’t budge.
I inched forward, slow as molasses, adjusted the camera, and tried again.
It stayed put.
I brought the camera up about a foot away from the thing, and took some more photos.
No reaction.
So I walked around to the other side of the chair and took some more photos from a few different angles. I had the camera as close to this thing as my lens would allow, and it barely twitched.
We finally had to physically brush it off of the chair so that people could sit down without squishing it. I kinda felt betrayed. I’d wasted all that time sneaking up on a stupid inbred grasshopper, and I could have waltzed right up to it…