Cricket field day in a wobbly watery world

Hamsterley Forest, Weardale A life supported by surface tension gives water crickets a sensory outlook that can only be imagined

All winter the ditches beside the forest track flowed with water draining from the hillside. Today, after a fortnight of drier weather, they were reduced to small pools as smooth as mirrors; perfect for the water crickets that had come to skate on their surface.

I knelt down, intent on catching one of these insects in the plastic specimen tube I always carry in my pocket. My plan was to submerge it behind the bug, which would be swept into the container with the inrush of water. It took a dozen attempts.