Samaras

...aka as Maple helicopters.  

We seem to have an overabundance of these on our 40+ foot Maple in the backyard.  I was reading about this and apparently, this happens if the tree has undergone some stress during the last year and that if that stress continues, the tree may not survive.  Let's just hope last year was a one-off for the Maple as well as for the rest of us.  

It will surely be quite a mess to clean up when they begin to drop.

I took this with my iPhone in Portrait mode.  I just found out that you can adjust the f stop to create more softness in the background, but it must be done carefully, because it is done artificially and can start to blur the subject as well.