Common Drone Fly

My first sighting of this large hoverfly species this summer - and conveniently perched right in the rudbeckia - color coordinated!  I had the 300 PF lens on the z8 so this was taken from a distance of about 4 feet and cropped slightly.  Otherwise, I didn't do anything in post - the light was pretty much perfect.  And adding this to my visual yard bug record for the year - click on the tag below if you want to see the collection.

I had an MRI of my hand scheduled today which I managed to get through with only moderate panic.  For some silly reason, I thought they'd only put my hand in the MRI machine, but they slid my whole body almost in which caused a high level of anxiety since I am very claustrophobic.  I did a lot of deep breathing and tried visualizing all my happy places (kayaking, rain forest, mountains, etc).  I won't do that again without drugs.  Good news is that I already got the results.  Nothing physically wrong with my hands so that makes it fairly certain it's a drug reaction to the anti-cancer drugs I am taking.  Fortunately, I have an appointment with my oncologist this week.  

It is hot again today so my time outside was limited to short jaunts.  I was over in my large pollinator garden photographing some things in the mountain mint, echinacea and bee balm when I noticed the vegetation moving around a bit more than it should have been.  At the exact same time, I had a huge Great Black Wasp in my sights, though, so I didn't pay a lot of attention.  And then my viewfinder was filled with ... a huge groundhog! And he was so close that only his head fit in my full-frame viewfinder.  I did what any self-respecting photographer would do and put my finger on the shutter.  He saw me at about the same time so there were only a few pics before he was gone into the bushes.  I will put the uncropped photo in Extra.  And making a note not to let Jax loose in that part of the garden as I suspect the ground hog has a burrow in there - and ground hogs will put up a huge fight if they are attacked.  We have friends whose pit bull took on a groundhog and ended up with over 40 stitches.  Life on the Lane.

SIL is staying with us tonight.  She had a colonoscopy this morning so she is sleeping off the anesthesia.  The heat is supposed to break tomorrow, thank goodness.  Not that we've had anything compared to other parts of the US/world, but still, it's been unpleasant.  

There is an especially feisty little juvenile male hummingbird in the garden right now (he's got 2 big red feathers on his neck, a glimpse of what will eventually be a glorious ruby colored throat.  He has taken over one feeder and all of the nearby flowers as his own and vigorously chases all the other hummers away.  Of course, while he's chasing one, several others buzz in to drink.  Very fun to watch.

I think dark with bits of toffee today.

xo
Debbi