Bugs!

Friends and I went wandering in the Colliers Mills WMA, located at the northern edge of the NJ Pine Barrens, this morning. Other than a nice battle between an Orange Capped Woodpecker* and an European Starling over a nesting hole, with a pair of Brown-headed Cowbirds watching, not much was going on.

Unless you were a gnat. Then this was the place to be. They were everywhere, tens of thousands of these tiny little flying specs. A wall of bugs in places. The photo doesn't do justice to the view, sparkles of backlit glitter in the morning sun.

These were surprisingly difficult to photograph. There were so many I figured I could just focus in the 'cloud' using a moderate depth of field. But just when I'd achieve focus either the wind or the insects themselves would decide to shift. This is the best of the bunch.

I was not the only one to notice and enjoy these tiny creatures, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers were out in force.

*Commonly known as the red-bellied woodpecker.