Mating stink bugs form a mirror image on the top of an almost-blooming gray-headed coneflower. Sarpy County, Nebraska

I really didn’t mean to focus my photography efforts on stink bugs and gray-headed coneflower last weekend, but that’s what seemed to be in front of me as I walked around (see my earlier post from this week).  These two stink bugs were too busy to pay any attention to me as I tried to make good use of bright overcast light on a foggy morning.

Gray-headed coneflowers, by the way, are used heavily in prairie restoration (reconstruction) work because they establish quickly and the seed is relatively easy to harvest and/or cheap.  In Nebraska, the species is really only native to the far eastern edge of the state, but still gets widely planted throughout the entire state.