... Yo, babe! Can I buy you a drink?

Dagwood Damsel is clearly up to something. You can see it on his face, can't you? He's batting his eyes at the camera, giving his best "come hither" look.

Or maybe I'm just imagining things. I must have taken 200 shots today and I really didn't like any of them much. I was sitting on the patio feeling sorry for myself when this little guy landed on the butterfly bush (which is turning alarmingly yellow) and gazed at me. He waited while I picked up my camera, fiddled with the settings, crept closer, got the lens right in his face and fired off three shots. I cropped the hell out of this one, but didn't make any other adjustments since I thought the colors worked. We have a lot of these little brown damsels here - not sure what kind they are, but they are all over the backyard every summer. I've probably rescued 20 of them from spider webs this summer, so maybe he was one of my rescues.

My second and third choices for today were:

Gawky looking juvenile blue jay

Hummingbird in fight flight

I glimpsed a hairy woodpecker again today. They are native to NJ but I am told that they avoid people and rarely come to feeders. That said, I've seen both a male and female at my suet feeder in the last few days. They leave the moment they see me, so no pictures yet ... but stay tuned.

If it's not raining in the morning, I'll be joining the local Audubon group for a nature walk tomorrow morning - always fun and educational for me.

Tonight's dinner - grilled salmon, roasted golden beets picked at the farm today, and a Greek salad with farm tomatoes. I do love summer when I can buy all my produce at the local farm.

Not to sound like a broken record, but I really want to thank everyone who commented on my ladybug yesterday - she made it to the front page of Spotlight today. And for anyone who is interested, the bud she was perched on was from one of my zinnias. This is the first year I've grown them from seed, and I am calling it a major success!

Happy Hump Day!