Late afternoon at the dam (and on the deck)

As regular readers of this blog will have noticed it has been rather dry recently.  Our top dam - spring fed - is showing a large rim of mud.  The nearest dam is as low as I have ever seen it.
This sword - which we found in our garage when we moved in 7 years ago today - was completely under water when the dam was full.  I positioned it as a depth gauge and a Camelot joke.
I spent about 30 minutes (at 36oC) sitting by the dam to see what could be seen.  A dragonfly was very cooperative in posing for photos.

This grasshopper seemed to caught by the wind and landed in a rather damper place than intended.
While not exactly a Waterhopper if did seem to be doing a pretty good job of propelling itself towards the bank.  I lost sight of it so don't know if it:
  • made the crossing;
  • sank; or
  • was gobbled by a tortoise which I have seen in the dam.
Ants seemed able to scoot across the meniscus and climb up twigs.
It was interesting that when this one was in situ the dragonfly wouldn't land.   If the ant had dropped down the twig the dragonfly would land but take off again when the ant came back up.

On returning to the house Frances pointed out an insect on the glass door.
Now that is what I call a long ovipositor (so it is a female).    From the length of the reproductive appendage, the overall colour scheme and the pattern and structure of the antennae I conclude that this is Gotra sp, a moth-parasitising Icheumenon wasp.  Here is a rotated image with an arty reflection to make things confusing!

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