Hummingbird moths vs Miller moths...and

the Whitelined Sphinx (hummingbird moth) wins!  I wasn't sure what I had an encountered today while checking out my newly planted flowers (Red Feathers Echium)

but it looked to be 1/2 hummingbird minus a beak and 1/2 grasshopper but it could fly.  I showed the picture to a friend and she knew right away that this was a hummingbird moth!  Pretty cool!  Check out the 'snout' on this one:

 I'd much rather have this guy floating around rather than those annoying Miller moths as long as it wasn't flying around inside my house!

Rainy day hiking Reservoir Ridge

 It was a rainy, dreary day that aborted our originally planned hike by Rocky Mountain National Park.   We chose instead to do something closer to home in case the rain really started coming down.  It was a nice but overall unexciting hike that goes by Claymore Lake (above).  It's a rare day when it's this cloudy/foggy and just plain blah but once you live in Colorado you really start to appreciate these days (in Michigan...not so much!)

I couldn't let the latest and greatest outfit go by without a picture to remember it by.  And yes, these are still the same leggings with a hole in them!

Leave it to my daughter to spot this creature.  She is known for seeing/noticing insects that none of us would have ever seen.  Perhaps it's because she's the closest to the ground.  She was munching away on some pretzels perched on a rock and picked this out.  It was pretty freaky looking.

 Hike: Reservoir Ridge

Trails Used:  Reservoir Ridge (North Fort Collins)

Distance: 5.01 miles

Difficulty: Easy
Overall average: 2.4 mph
Overall Time: 2 hrs, 5 min
Total Ascent: 579 ft.