Mosquito Infestation & Coneflowers

The weekly shot looks harmless enough,
but lurking within the leaves and along the ground are 100,000,000 mosquitoes, all with my name on their hit list.

The only way to harvest the week's lettuce was in full bug gear.

Beans left foreground, cucumbers left center, lettuce and spinach to the right.

In spite of the mosquitoes, I tried my darnedest, four days in a row, to photograph the House Wrens. They have a nest of wrenlets in the back yard and there's constant chirping and non-stop food runs. When I approach, though, everything shuts down. Click the pic below and you may see the tip of a beak.

Beak of House Wren, Troglodytes aedon

Echinacea purpurea or Coneflower grows in the front yard along the road and, too often, I forget it's there. It's a lovely flower, probably known best as a cold remedy.

Great Spangled Fritillary

Bumblebee on Coneflower

I really don't know my butterflies at all but I'll take a guess and call this one of the Folded-winged Skippers.

We see many Raccoons mornings and evenings. This one was moving about in the afternoon and was later seen snoozing on the porch of one of our nest boxes. He must have had a rough night, what with all the racket from the 4th of July fireworks.