Scarlet buckeye. The new macros lens lets me get in really close. This image is not cropped, merely resized from the large original. You can compare to last week's scarlet buckeye shot, which was done with the zoom lens.
The problems with the computer saved me from having to pick only one of these images...I had a dozen good ones of common buckeye butterflies and variegated fritillary butterflies, as well as numerous others--peach blosssoms against a blue sky, etc. This delicate little creature is a Citrine Forktail, Ischnura hastata, the smallest North American damselfly. The front end really is that incredible lime green, and the abomen is bright golden orange on a tree.
Though it's spring, it was cold and blustery and the birds were all puffed up to stay warm. It's interesting how downy the field sparrows, chickadees, and titmice look when fluffed, when the Lincoln's sparrows, the same size, don't.
Lincoln's sparrows manage to look pert and active even when fluffed out. Their intricate feather patterns fascinate me.

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