Ants! Flying ants!

Although the day started horribly wet, as soon as the sun came out (and, boy, was it hot!), these ants, both winged and the usual unwinged, came pouring out of this crack in a concrete step. They milled about furiously and I had to be careful to avoid touching my hand or the phone on the step, otherwise they would quickly have swarmed all over them. By late afternoon, all the flying ants had disappeared, the queens and all the males heading off on a mating flight to set up new colonies elsewhere. Hopefully this photo captures some of the frenzied activity that accompanies the preparations for departure! Little ant chocks away!