Red-spotted Purple Admiral

As I was crouched down in the garden, trying to get some decent shots of the tiny long-legged flies that have suddenly emerged, this gorgeous butterfly flew up and landed for a few moments on the patio.  I was able to get the camera relatively close by teetering on the garden wall and am quite happy with the shot. The butterfly made it rather easy, so I can't really claim any special skill here.

It was definitely a macro kind of day.  There were all sorts of interesting things flying around the garden and I was spoiled for choices.  I even found an intriguing new fly, called an Ornate Snipe Fly (It's on HERE on Flickr).  There are five additional shots if you want to click through them - a few butterflies and a gorgeous big carpenter bee.  

Tomorrow morning I'll be up before the crack of dawn, headed to the airport for a full day of travel.  I'm off to Portland for a few days to visit my parents and I'm even going to have a chance to catch up with a few blip-friends on Friday!  I'm looking forward to spending some time with my parents - we'll do lots of walking with some photography and geo-caching, always lots of fun.  

A small contingent of Tinies will be traveling with me - they insisted and who am I to refuse?  They want to meet my parents.

I'm now off to pack and sort out what camera gear I'm taking.  I will apologize in advance for a lack of comments for the rest of the week while I'm in Oregon.  Thanks for understanding!  

Happy Monday!

Debbi

In bird news...the second male House Wren has apparently got a taker on one of his nests as I saw the couple having a brief fling on the top of the cherry tree!  First time I've ever seen house wrens doing the deed - they are usually very secretive.  I think he was perhaps so overjoyed to have found a mate that he threw caution to the wind.

PPS:  Breaking News:  I just saw a female wild turkey with six very small babies (poults) feeding along the woods in our yard.  One pic in Extra - have a look!