It was a lovely, cool morning, and the grass was still wet with dew as Kara and I went for our morning nature walk.

Here's Kara, the nature dog (who loves chasing flying robins, lol!)

We started the morning with a look at the wetland, where we surprised a visiting mallard. And he surprised us, so just a fuzzy, proof of life shot!

 The chokecherries are blooming, with some of them not quite in full bloom yet.

The hubub with the duck put the painted turtles on full alert!

The wetland has an old water pump sitting in a foot or two of pond. The water level is much higher than long ago, obviously!

The hay field was not as busy as yesterday, until you started to walk around, and roust the insects from their morning torpor. Dragonflies were starting to get active. I tried photographing them in flight, with no success at getting a sharp picture. Boy, do they move fast! This shot was one I liked - it gives an impression of the busy, rapid flight.

One dragonfly did oblige with a pose.

The Azure blues weren't flying yet - perhaps the cool night was something they needed to recover from. Remember, these little guys are less than half an inch long. For a size reference, look at the blades of grass that they are resting on!

Quite often, if two encounter each other in flight, they do a brief pas de deux. A very fortunate shot, capturing one such a dance!

The undersides of the wings are a very plain, dull brown, with a pretty and intricate pattern of black dots.

Here's a shot with two butterflies, contrasting the appearance of the underside and top of the wings.

And a shot of a resting butterfly, showing  off its beautiful azure blue wings.

And to close off this post, an image from last night. Cathie and I often joke about the regularity with which we seem to get gorgeous sunsets (and sunrises) as seen from our hilltop house. Last night's sunset wasn't particularly notable, but here it is.