Hiking around the nearby prairie this past week, this little grasshopper was content to sit atop a blazing sea of orange … a Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa) in full bloom:
While I was photographing this hopper, I heard a rather loud roar overhead. Without looking up, I immediately recognized the sound of one of Missouri’s largest birds … the Stealth B2 bomber:
As you can see, he is quite high (I was using ~400mm focal length … and I cropped the image a bit, on top of that). That is the trademark of the Stealth, when it is not in “stealth” mode … it is very, very loud! Missouri is the home base of the USA’s Stealth fleet, being housed at Whiteman AFB, about 50 miles east of where I live. On several occasions, I have been in the field photographing whenever the trademark roar of the Stealth bomber suddenly appears overhead … quite an experience!