About three yesterday afternoon, I donned waders and headed out “down back” to “our” beaver swamp. To me, there is nothing more enjoyable than spending a few hours outside watching (and photographing) the world.
One can tell that August is here because there the meadowhawks appear to great you as you get to the wetland. Meadowhawks spend most of their time at the margin of the beaver meadow. They often perch on the shrubs found there. Yesterday was typical, meadowhawks were the first and last odes I saw.
Out in the meadow proper, I was surprised at the small numbers of darners that were present… maybe it is still a bit early. I think of them as “late season” species… we’ll have to keep looking!
Of course, there was much else going on if one looks carefully.
There were more damselflies out and about than there were dragonflies. Perhaps the most common species present were sphagnum sprites; I saw a number of pairs flying in tandem and ovipositing.
Photographing ovipositing pairs of damselflies is very frustrating. Usually the male is sort of free standing and therefore he is constantly “vibrating”. This makes for “fuzzy” if not downright blurry males. One rare occasions the male finds something solid to grab onto which makes for better photographs (as is the case in the eighth photo shown here).
All of the books about odes make mention that ovipositing puts these critters at risk of predation. This unlucky pair is an example. As I was watching them through the viewfinder a spider came literally from nowhere and pounced on the pair capturing the female. The actual attack took only a few tenths of a second and my reflexes are not that good! Thus, I only have photos of the aftermath (see the ninth photo in this series). I searched for the spider in all of the frames I shot of the pair and can not find it!
There were also fair numbers of eastern forktails, mainly older females, about. Female eastern forktails start out bright orange and turn a dull gray with age. It is hard to believe that they are the same species much less the same individuals they look so different.
I also saw (and photographed) for the first time a lone fragile forktail; it was about two feet from all of the “spider drama”.
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