Family picnic

I met up with two friends for a walk up at the refuge this morning.  We walked several miles through the wetlands (which are not very wet right now owing to lack of rain) enjoying many birds and a good assortment of insects.  Lots of shorebirds in the mudflats as they are migrating south now.  And lots of these rather snappy little Large Milkweed Bug nymphs feeding on the milkweed seed pods.  If you look closely you can see several sizes including some very tiny ones that haven't yet even developed the false wings.  Interesting to me that they all cohabitate together like this.  Their color protects them from most birds so they don't hide under the seed pods, but gather out in the open.  

I've put a shot of a Queen Anne's lace seedhead in extra.  I think it's gorgeous and I am going to be waiting for some of mine to form seed heads and then try doing some focus stacks to capture all the detail.

The weather was perfect today - slightly overcast and temps in the low 70's.  Hopefully we are done with the high 90's for the year.

Jax and I had a nice little nap this afternoon and now it's his time to wake up and play so I must go entertain Himself.

Dark with nuts today.

xo
Debbi