Yesterday afternoon was sunny with the temperature in the mid-70’s… perfect weather for odes. Looking to explore a ecological niche different from the lake or beaver swamp that I usually haunt, I headed for the Contoocook River to “hunt”.
My first stop was the Powder Mill Pond WMA in Greenfield; this site is above the dam but at the far end of the “pond”, just where the water narrows back down The water level was very low.
The variety of species in a very small area was quite remarkable.
Along the river banks (the first three photos were taken here), there were numerous chalk-fronted corporals cruising the area. There were also many skimming bluets right at the waters edge.
I saw a single twelve-spotted skimmer. I stalked it for quite some time but I did not get a photograph because I never saw it come lower than about eight feet off the ground. It was perched on a pine bough maybe twenty five feet up the last time I saw it.
A short (maybe 500 feet) walk from the river is a meadow off the parking lot where the next three photos were taken. While I was concentrating on the lancet clubtail, I noticed some movement off to the side. I turned to see a male widow skimmer (which I had never seen before) perched on a stalk of grass. I was able to grab a single frame before it flew off. Alas, I was too close (within the close focus distance of my lens + extension tube) and the photo was not sharp. I guess that I’ll need to head back there again soon and continue the hunt!
The last four photos were taken at my second stop, a slow moving part of the river below the dam at the paper mill in Bennington. The stream bluets were fairly common and there were small numbers of female river jewelwings; I did not see any males. I also saw (but did not photograph) a few dragonflies (probably slaty skimmers) along the edge of the paper mills’ lawn.
On the way home I stopped by the Tenney’s Farm for what are probably the last of the strawberries for the season. We had them for dessert over vanilla ice cream after dinner. Yum!
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Another fine crop of nature’s wonderfully dainty creatures! I have been noticing that my sharpening comments of the past do not seem warranted any longer. Have you been doing something different? Back to this group – the Calico Penant, River Jewelwing, and the Lancet Clubtail are very sharp and perfectly positioned. By the way who names these odes?
Off to get my calculator out for today’s math problem:) No need, i had enough fingers. . .
Comment by Just Joe — 25 June 2012 @ 5:11 PM
As for the names given to these critters…
I have no clue where (or who) they come from. Just be glad that I am not using all of the Latin names as a proper biologist would do!
With regard to the sharpening…
I use Photoshop’s Image Processor command (under the File… Scripts menu) to automate the re-sizing of files for the web. I have it set up to make a downsized copy of all the files I have open in Photoshop when I run it; this is very convenient.
On of the things that the Image Processor can do is run an action on each file just before saving it. In response to your comments, I fine tuned the settings in the action that I use to sharpen the images after they are downsized for the web.
As for the silly math problems…
I am sorry for the inconvenience but that little addition to the WordPress software has reduced the number of spam comments on my blog from two or three a day to one or two a month.
Comment by Frank — 25 June 2012 @ 8:32 PM