Fascinating Find

Praying Mantis
Originally uploaded by *Bundy*

It's amazing what you'll see sometimes if you just keep your eyes open and pay attention to your surroundings.

As part of my efforts to lose weight I've made walking a major part of the process. I try to get out and walk every day at some point. Some days it's a long and intense walk and other times it's just a leisurely stroll.

A week or so ago I had been walking with some serious purpose quite a bit and decided to take a break. I still wanted to get a bit of an outing in so I grabbed my camera and struck out for a 3km hike through the forest at Presqu'ile Park.

Even on my so-called lazy walks I still find myself at times moving at a faster pace then planned. I guess I've just been doing it long enough now that I'm used to a certain speed and need to force myself to hit the brakes from time to time.

Luckily I hit them at just the right time. As I was making my way along the trail I spotted what I thought was a twig on the ground and passed over it as I do every other time. However, something struck me as odd about this particular piece of ground wood.

I turned around and went back to it and upon closer inspection realized it wasn't a piece of wood at all but a brown coloured Praying Mantis.

First off, I hadn't seen one of these creatures in years. I remember them as a kid but just never spotted one in my adult life. Secondly, every praying mantis I've ever seen was green in colour and this particular fellow was brown.

Is it a different species or race? Is it a young one that hasn't changed colour yet or an older one that has lost his green complexion? I don't have the answers but there was no doubting what I had found.

You would have laughed at me had you come along the trail at that moment because I now found myself flat on my stomach pointing my camera in the direction of this ugly thing. I was so intent on getting a picture of it I didn't even bother to check for poison ivy or consider the possibility of having ticks get on my skin which can of course lead to some bad stuff. Luckily, I think I avoided both and still managed to come away with a pretty cool photo.