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On my way to school, I saw a big stag beetle flying gracefully across the sky. It landed on a patch of green blades, known as grass. It was a female because it did not have any antler-like mandibles like the male beetle. It seemed to notice me crouching down near it and stopped moving. It could be because it thought I was a predator; after all, I was a thousand times bigger than it was. It must have been scared of me. I too stopped moving so as not to frighten it.

As I love taking photos of nature, I took a photo of it (my way of recording what I saw). After several seconds of neither of us moving, it began to stir, assessed that I was not a threat, and continued on its way.

After I came home from school, I did some research and learned that one of the differences between male and female beetles is that females do have mandibles – they’re just much smaller than the males’. The male is also a lot bigger in size. They both have three pairs of legs, three sections of the body (head, thorax and abdomen) and the abdomen is of a chestnut brown colour.

The jaws of the male beetle are quite scary to look at, but did you know that they are in fact quite weak? Amazing, isn’t it? I had always thought them to be mighty strong. Well, now I know better!
Flynn, 10

• Read today’s other YCD, by Rosalind and Beatrix, eight: ‘We are the Nature Goddesses, welcome to our wildlife club!’
• The Young Country Diary submission form is now closed for the summer, but keep the link handy, it will reopen on October 1 for autumn articles