Hot and Dry

I went for a short hike early this morning to beat out the heat. As I was walking my thoughts rambled back to last night. Because we haven't had any fog the forest floor is really dry and we can hear the local creatures at night on their forays as the leaves underfoot are rather noisy. Sometime during the night Lenore woke me up. "Did you hear that?", She asked of me. I mumbled an incoherent sleepy response in reply. Then she commented,"Something really big just ran by!". At that I was fully awake and listening and I didn't hear a thing. So as I was walking today my thoughts turned to the resident predators. It must be really hard to hunt your prey when the dry leaves give you away. It made me wonder if they still hunt and just wait for their prey to pass by and then leap out upon them. Just a curious passing thought.God's blessings upon you, chris Image created with a Canon 7D mkII and a 100mm macro lens. AV mode, ISO 400, F 13.0 for 1 sec. Camera was supported by a Manfrooot 055 XPROB tripod with a Bogen heavy duty ballhead.