Oops! Snowberry...

With apologies to the three people who commented on the finch I initially posted. Right after I posted, I went outside and saw something I've only ever seen one other time - a clearwing moth perched rather than flying! Mad dash back into the house to grab D600 and rental lens, race back out, hoping the moth would still be perched. He/she was and the lighting was glorious - hallelujah! So, here you have a Snowberry Clearwing Moth (Hemaris diffinis) in my buddleia. And notice that it's proboscis is tightly curled and tucked in its mouth. Neat!

Here is a link to the shot I initially posted of a finch in the echinecia.

I am tracking the progress of another very large nursery web spider in the garden - she's made her nursery web on one of my dahlias and there are currently a gazillion little spiderlings in the nursery while mama stands guard. There is something just fascinating about this whole thing to me. And I have to thank Vodkaman for getting me interesting in this particular type of spider. I still feel all twitchy and jumpy after I look at her, but at least I am not shrieking and running for a can of insecticide! Progress...

I posted six other shots on Flickr, starting with a hummer and finishing with my black cat, Rocket. Still putting the Nikon 105mm through its paces, atlhough today's shot was taken with the trusty D90 and Big Daddy. I decided to extend my rental on the 105mm for another week. I'd like to try some other things with it and just wasn't ready to send it back tomorrow. The folks at lensrentals.com could not have been nicer, and even cut me a break on the pricing for the second week. If you are in the US and want to rent gear, I highly recommend these guys - they are great.

Tomorrow I'm meeting up with my nature group for a hike at Walkill NWR, one of my favorite places. Looking forward to it. Last year when we hiked this area, there were hundreds of monarchs - will be strange not to have the large numbers this year, but maybe we'll see at least a few.

Thanks for sending my drippy blip yesterday to the Spotlight page - and for all the really nice comments. You guys rock.

Happy Thursday, people!

xxoo
Debbi