My daughter and I are on a short working vacation in the Nebraska Sandhills this week, so I don’t have much time to write. Instead, here are two of my favorite photos from my trip to the Niobrara Valley Preserve last week.
Prickly poppy (Argemone polyanthemos) at the Niobrara Valley Preserve.
A metallic green sweat bee (Agapostemon splendens) feeds on purple prairie clover, displaying its long tongue. (thanks to Mike Arduser for identifying this)
The Prairie Ecologist 
I especially love your closeup photos!
Chris, you mentioned in one of your recent blogs that you had purchased a new camera. As I recall, you had previously been using a Nikon D300S. Would you be willing to share with your readers the details about your new equipment?
Hi Gary. Sure, I’m happy to share – it’s nothing fancy, just a Nikon 7100, but I really like it. It’s got better video and overall resolution than the 300s and was significantly cheaper! My main lenses are a Nikon 28-300, Tokina 12-28, and a Nikon 105 macro.
Great shot of the bee!
Awesome close ups
I was just going to ask you what type of camera – thanks so much for sharing!