Rockin' my geek

Yep, you may very well have felt the earth shift on its axis momentarily today.  For the first time ever, I held a gi-normous insect in the palm of my hand. I had very nearly stepped on this huge Chinese Mantid when I was out walking and didn't want to leave it on the trail so I coaxed it onto my hand and relocated it.  A few challenges...firstly, all I had was my 300 mm lens and my iPhone so had to settle for a phone shot to get it on my hand.  Secondly, it didn't want to get off my hand and disengaging it took a good five minutes.  Every time I'd try to get it to walk onto a leaf or twig, it would turn around and start walking up my arm which (can I be honest?) was just a tad unnerving.  Anyway, eventually I was able to get it on a twig where I got a much better shot than this one.  In the spirit of "life's little moments", though, this had to be today's choice because it was most definitely a moment to preserve!  And, can I just say, it was pretty darned cool to have this big creature in the palm of my hand!

I was actually spoiled for choices to blip today.  I got some good shots of a Common Buckeye butterfly and had my first ever Milbert's Tortoiseshell butterfly in our yard.  Plus some very cute titmice and some interesting shots of milkweed seedpods.  I posted three shots starting HERE with a much better mantis shot (Mantis, buckey, tortoiseshell).  

We are still experiencing uncommonly mild weather and it was lovely being out today.  Rain in the forecast for tomorrow, so perhaps I'll try to get caught up on some indoor things... maybe.

Thanks so much for stopping by.

xo
Debbi