Look into the eyes ...

...all of 'em!

After a bit of research, I learned that this is an Eastern Carpenter Bee, not a bumble bee as I initially thought. He (I am guessing on gender) is a nice bee and is not able to sting, although he will defend his nest by bumping into you. He is a tiny bit smaller than the bumblebee and he has a relatively hairless butt as compared to the bumbler. (Yea, I've been on Wikipedia again...) Anyway, I loved his eyes in this shot!

I had a great walk along the lake at Kittatinny and ran into the Audubon naturalist who leads the bird/nature walks in our area. We had a nice chat, saw a few birds and even saw the first dragon zip by. Tom id'd it as a darner, although neither of us was quick enough with cameras. Another day...

Then, off to the local farm to drool on look at the flowers. I was taking photos when a woman stopped me and asked if I'd be willing to take some pictures of some horses she is getting ready to sell. Well, sure, why not? So I will phone her tomorrow and set up a time. I'm not going to charge her because who knows if I can actually take decent photos of horses? Never tried it before, but should be fun. She apparently has 70 + acres so I expect I can work a trade to take some pics at her farm.

Then, because the day wasn't already good enough, the manager of the farm gave me 3 big hyacinth pots and 3 big daffodil pots ... for free! They still have lots of buds and are in glorious bloom. Within 5 minutes of putting them out on our deck, I had this bee, a bumbler and a couple of other smaller bees. Yippee!

I am now bringing all the feeders in at night because in addition to the bear "incident" last week, I've also gotten film of raccoons on the deck at night. Hopefully, they'll find a new place to dine and stay off the deck.

Thank you so very much for sending my chickadee flying onto the Spotlight page! I was so pleased with that shot, so it means a lot that you liked it too. Grazie!

Tonight's dinner is a big greens and grains salad ... and it looks like it is going to be warm enough to eat dinner on the deck for the first time this year!!!

xxoo
Debbi