By Randall Kayfes | 2023-05-29
![Community photo entitled by Steve Price on 05/29/2023 at The West Desert, Pony Express Trail, Faust, UT](https://earthsky.org/upl/gravity_forms/6-d184048789a60d766a02a8e43117298b/2023/05/redwingghopper.png)
On 05/29/2023 01:46 pm by Steve Price| The West Desert, Pony Express Trail, Faust, UT
This past Monday I went hiking in the West Desert along the Pony Express Trail near Faust, Utah. Mainly, I was just enjoying the great outdoors, getting some Vitamin D sunshine and viewing the desert wildflowers in bloom. Every now and then a grasshopper would get spooked and take flight. Their underwings would be either bright yellow with a black band or crimson red with the black band. Their flights were usually 10 meters or so and then they would land. I followed one of the red winged variety and after 3 flights I managed to see its exact landing spot and took these pics. Even closeup they were so blended into the background of gray soil and shadows as to be nearly invisible. The Wiki image shows the bright red underwing, which could be so colored as to be a warning to potential predators.
Google Pixel 5 cell phone
Cropped and composited.