Yet another gorgeous day at the beach.  The weather is warm, in the 80 F range, with a slight breeze, and hardly a cloud in the sky.  By the time we got down there, several groups had already arrived.

This neighbor was playing fetch with the dog.  Well, the dog was playing fetch, while she played throw.

 After yesterday, I was on the watch for butterflies.  The usual little white jobs (that's about my level of taxonomic sophistication with them) were all over the little milkweed plants up in dunes.

 Then this one, a Zebra Swallowtail, (Protographium marcellus), landed right at my feet where it was probably sipping the salt water off the sand, and allowed me to photograph it repeatedly.  Unfortunately, it never opened its wings to the allow me to get a perfect shot.  The caterpillar for these butterflies live on Paw Paw trees:

This butterfly rarely strays far from its host plant, pawpaw, and is found in habitats where the trees grow. Such habitats include deciduous woodlands, southern pine woodlands, prairies, and savannas. The Zebra Swallowtail does poorly in developed areas, and prefers intact habitats.

It was a pretty high tide, and a poor day for fossils, which is sad, because Long Beach is having it's biannual fossil day today, and they are having a beach walk, well, about now as I write this. 










It's hard on a Siberian Husky who still has most of her winter coat (she hates to brushed), but at least she can take a dip to coll off.

There was a large group of 'yakkers out today.  We heard that Calvert County and the Chestnut Land Trust were sponsoring a paddle from Scientists Cliffs to Flag Ponds Park.  We talked to a couple of them who put in briefly at Calvert Beach.

No, the crab boat isn't that close to them, it's an artifact of the zoom lens that makes it seem that way.

 Just a pretty beach picture

And another.