Minnow Mayfly

In between rain showers this afternoon I took a little macro safari in the backyard, on the hunt for insects.  It's cool today, and a bit breezy, so not really idea for bugging, but I managed to find a couple of tiny wasps, a green assassin bug and this tiny little creature.  The body of this was about 1/3 -1/2 inch long and I nearly missed it since it's rather drab and was huddled on a leaf near the ground.  I managed to get myself and the camera very close to the ground and lined up a few shots.  I've never seen this species before  so it was fun to try to figure out what is was.  The identification process is so much easier now with apps like SEEK, but it can still be quite tricky to get down to a Genus and the apps are also wrong sometimes.  But I'm pretty confident on this one.  Mayflies are often used as the design model for people who make fishing flies - you can definitely see why.  

I made the trek down to the Travel MD this morning (an hour each way) and got two jabs - Typhoid and Yellow Fever.  I still also need a Hep B, but they didn't want to give me 3 shots in the same arm at the same time.  I also have a prescription for antibiotics in case I get any sort of intestinal thing while I am in Brazil.  They did tell me that I may get a reaction to the jabs but time will tell.  Anyway, it's done and that's the main thing.

While I was enroute to the doctor, Hubs left to drive down to the race track (3 hours) and is hoping to get the race car inspected later this afternoon preparatory to racing in the morning.  I hope he has a fabulous time - he's definitely earned it.  

I now have THREE active House Wren nests - I discovered the third one when I was just checking what I thought was a dummy nest.  Imagine my surprise when mama flew off the nest to reveal 5 tiny speckled eggs.  So either there are two males tolerating each other in this territory (which would be unusual) or the resident male has managed to entice 3 females to nest here, resulting in 18 eggs.  Also unusual although it has happened at least once before here.  No activity on the swallow nest so I don't know what is going on.  The nest is built but still awaiting the finishing touches of feathers.  Maybe the cooler temps this week have put them off.  

xoxo
Debbi