Tiny Moments

My milkweed patches have been very busy this week with multiple monarchs leaving eggs in amongst the leaves and flowers.  I was snooping around this morning (before it gets too hot) and happened to come across a just-emerged caterpillar who was almost done eating the egg case.  This is kind of an ingenious natural behavior because it removes evidence that the caterpillar was ever there, thereby helping it to avoid becoming lunch for a predator.  And little caterpillars have LOTS of predators!  In fact, I have been keeping some unknown eggs in one of my critter habitats that just hatched this morning - assassin bugs.  The eggs were on milkweed so you can do the calculations.  I released the baby assassins on a different flower patch not near the milkweed.  

I am getting ready to box up the Z6ii and send it back.  I've really enjoyed using it this last week.  On the plus side, it's super-light and feels good in the hand; it fires fast and quiet; image quality is very good.  On the negative side, it burns through batteries faster than a dslr and it really hunts too much for focus for my taste.  I understand that the Z9 has improved the focus grab, but it's also wickedly expensive.  So, long and short - I don't think this is an ideal camera body for wildlife photography but I think it would be a delight for landscapes, street photos and anything else where fast focus tracking isn't critical.  

I bought a kiddie pool for Jax recently to see if we can work on his seeming fear of water.  This morning, for the first time, he got both his front feet in the water (about 4 inches deep) and then plunged his muzzle underwater to grab mouthfuls of water.  It was pretty funny to watch him and he enjoyed himself as evidenced by the fact that he's now passed out on the sofa.  

Up next for me is yoga, then shopping, some cleaning, a follow up appointment with the gastro doc and ... whew.  I won't be out in the garden much today as temps are headed to 97 with high humidity.  

Nothing dark yet today, but maybe cherries and almonds in dark later...

xo
Debbi