Photographs by Frank

7 July 2013

Fourth of July Odes

Filed under: "Camp",Monadnock Region,Odontates,Summer — Tags: , — Frank @ 10:00 AM

After a lunchtime barbeque with Joan’s cousins to celebrate the holiday, Joan and I spent the rest of afternoon and early evening at camp. Joan headed out for a sail and I headed out around the edge of the lake to see what odes were about.

Eventually we both settled in our chairs with the books we had brought; a nice way to relax on a hot and humid Independence Day.

The most abundant ode were male bluets (which I have not identified further), there were smaller numbers of variable dancers (including at least two pairs flying in tandem) and a few clubtails as well.

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24 June 2013

The Easy, The Hard and The Different

Filed under: Odontates,The "New" Yard & Environs,wildflowers — Tags: , , — Frank @ 10:00 PM

If you want to try your hand at photographing odonates, I recommend starting with four-spotted skimmers. This medium sized (2-3″) dragonfly often returns to the same perch again and again after each hunting foray. It also generally chooses perch at the tops (ends) of branches or other stalks. Lastly, it is not particularly skittish and thus is relatively easy to approach closely. All of this makes four-spotted skimmers easy… to photograph.

If you want to increase your levels of frustration, I recommend trying to photograph the sedge sprite (and a number of other small damselflies). These critters are small (about 1- 1.5″ long) and slender.  They spend most of  their time low down in the vegetation and seem to flit about at random.  All of this makes sedge sprites (and their ilk) hard… to photograph.

Every once in a while I find myself on the wrong side of an ode in terms of the light. Sometimes when this happens, the silhouette neuron in my brain goes off. This allows me to make something different… photographically.

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I made the photograph of the iris as I headed back towards home. The sun, which by 6:30 was relatively low in the sky, had gone behind the clouds making for some nice light. The irises are nearing the end of their season so I doubt that there will be too many more chances to photograph them… until next summer.

23 June 2013

Another Two Days of Odeing

Filed under: "Camp",Monadnock Region,Odontates,The "New" Yard & Environs — Tags: , — Frank @ 8:30 AM

I seem to be getting behind in my posting… or maybe I am spending too much time odeing… nah!!!

Identifying the subjects is definitely the slow step.

Anyway… Joan and I spent Thursday afternoon at camp. We got the sailboat in the water and then “played”.

I wandered the shore of the cove,  with these results:

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On Friday afternoon, I got distracted by all of the odes in the yard and spent a short time (a half hour from the first of these photos to the last, according to the metadata) wandering the yard with camera in hand.

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20 June 2013

A Fabulous Day for Odes

Filed under: Monadnock Region,Nature Conservancy properties,Odontates,Other Insects,Summer — Tags: , , — Frank @ 8:05 AM

Yesterday was a spectacular day weather-wise… bright and sunny with the temperature in around 70. A perfect day to be outside!

I headed out late morning with three sites in mind to visit… the Powdermill Pond WMA, the Contoocook River near the paper mill in Bennington and the Lovern’s Mill White Cedar Swamp. I actually stopped at only the first and the last… the river by the paper mill  looked way too high to wade. Even so, I did not get back home until after four.

The first photo (below)  of the calico pennant was made in the yard as I was taking my gear out to the truck. The last four photos were made at the Cedar Swamp. The rest at Powdermill Pond, mostly in the uplands area as the river was too deep to wade safely.

There were surprisingly few odes out and about in general.

At the Powdermill Pond WMA there were decent numbers of Eastern Forktails mainly in the grassy areas back from the river and a few clubtails cruising the river bank.

At the Lovern’s Mill Swamp, I saw exactly three odes… but took good advantage of them! On my way in to the swamp, I saw, but did not get a chance to photograph, a single ebony jewelwing along the trail just before getting to the swamp proper.

While on the boardwalk in the swamp, I saw exactly two Harlequin Darners.

I watched one individual for some time, he kept hovering at about chest height in the vegetation just off the boardwalk and would occasionally land on the trunk of a nearby white cedar. At one point he chased off another dragonfly. (I assume another Harlequin Darner).

Since he was spending long (for a dragonfly) periods hovering in one spot, I tried my hand at capturing him flight. This is not something I try to do regularly as it is a low yield endeavor. The photo shown is the best, by far, of more than a dozen total.

Eventually the darner flew off and I headed back up the trail towards the car.

Maybe fifty feet back up the trail from the boardwalk, I encountered another (maybe the same individual as before; it was the same general area) ebony jewelwing. This time he was most accommodating in terms of photography. He was actively feeding on the insects along the trail. He spent most of his time perched on the trail-side  vegetation either waiting to pounce or eating. He was quite successful at hunting, returning to a perch with prey every second or third foray.

I may have contributed a bit to his success as a large cloud of mosquitoes quickly enveloped me when I stopped to photograph him. I believe that this was a symbiotic relationship… beneficial to at least two of the parties involved. I got photos, the damselfly got fed and the mosquitoes… well they got eaten!

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16 June 2013

Two Days of Ode-ing

Filed under: Amphibians,Odontates,Other Insects,Summer,wildflowers — Tags: , , , — Frank @ 11:00 PM

Today was not a particular good day for ode-ing… it was overcast and cool.

Not that I minded… I spent four or five hours over the previous two days swamp stomping  in my new summer-weight (i.e. non-neoprene) waders. Previously, I had made do with “green wellies” which often got flooded if I ventured a little too deep or if I squatted down in the water. Chest-waders have neither problem and therefore make the life of a swamp stomper much nicer!

Here are the results (including a few “non-ode” species):

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10 June 2013

Backyard Ode-ing

Filed under: Odontates,Summer,The "New" Yard & Environs — Tags: , — Frank @ 12:00 PM

Yesterday afternoon, I got distracted by the profusion (both in terms of number of species and number of individuals) of odes present in the yard.

I spent about an hour and a half  hunting odes and making photos…  much more fun that identifying odes from previous trips and household chores.

I count seven species of odes… and how did that bumble bee sneak in?!

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9 June 2013

Migratory Dragonfly Workshop

Filed under: Odontates,Summer — Tags: , — Frank @ 9:00 PM

Yesterday, Joan and I spent an enjoyable day at the Vermont Center for Ecostudies in White River Junction, Vermont. We attended, with about three dozen other folks, a workshop about the  Migratory Dragonfly Project presented by Celeste M. of the Xerces Society,

Most of the day was spent inside learning about migratory dragonflies and how to be part of this citizen science project. The presentations were informative and lively.

After the presentations we explored two ponds in the VCE’s immediate neighborhood. Fortunately the weather, which started cool and rainy in the morning, had improved significantly and there were significant odes to be captured and studied… or… in my case, photographed.

Here are the results:

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Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge — Part 2, Odonates

Filed under: National Wildlife Refuges,Odontates,Summer — Tags: , — Frank @ 7:24 PM

Well… At the rate I am working it might take years to get these critters identified. This is clearly not my strong point!

Thus, I am just going to post the photos… check back at some point if you really care about the names.

UPDATE: Last evening, Joan spent some time with Paulson’s book and Odonata Central.  She has IDs for all of the photos… blame her if they are wrong!!! 😉

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10 September 2012

Opportunity Caught!

Filed under: Landscapes,Odontates,Other Insects — Tags: , , , — Frank @ 6:00 AM

Today was a beautiful early fall day and I could not resist the urge to wander down to “our” beaver swamp late this afternoon.

Noticing all of the nice clouds, I tossed my wide angle lens and polarizing filter in my pocket as I headed out the door. Thus, I can actually show those who have not (yet) been here a photo of the place where I have whiled away many enjoyable hours in pursuit of odes over  the past two summers.

The ode season is definitely winding down here. There were a dozen or so large odes (darners, most likely) aloft out over the meadow and I watched a couple of female darners ovipositing at the edge of the pond.  I noted two or three spreadwings along the edge of the woods and that was about it… except for one rare opportunity that I caught!

Darners are large, spectacular dragonflies that are frustrating to photograph… they rarely perch! However, every once in a great awhile one finds them perched and you get an opportunity!

I was wandering slowly along the edge of the meadow when I flushed a darner mating wheel  out of the grass. This is a fairly rare, maybe two or three times a summer, event in itself. Usually the pair flies off and that’s it. You loose track of them, they land high up in a tree or you flush them a second time trying to get a good angle photographically, et cetera, et cetera. Or as Joan would say… “excuses, excuses”!

This time the mating pair landed about ten feet up on the trunk of a nearby tree; a little high to be ideal but one takes what nature provides. I took the extension tube off the 70-300 mm lens and was able photograph them for twenty-five minutes (according to the meta-data). The show ended when the couple parted ways; presumably she headed to the pond to begin ovipositing. They are either Canada Darners or Green-striped Darners… I can’t decide. [UPDATE: Thanks to my friend Kevin and the helpful folks on the Northeast Odonates mailing list (who all agree), we can say that these are Canada Darners.]

I wandered for another hour or so before the sun dipped below the ridge and I headed home. In that interval, I saw a couple more spreadwings ,always at the edge of the woods, and a few grasshoppers among the marsh grasses.

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31 August 2012

Another Afternoon at the Beaver Swamp

Filed under: Amphibians,Odontates,Other Insects,wildflowers — Tags: , , , — Frank @ 6:00 PM

As summer draws rapidly to a close, I feel the urge to wander in wetlands more strongly than earlier in the season. Yesterday Joan and I both headed down to the beaver swamp. She to work on her skills at identifying and documenting wildflowers and I to do my usual thing!

Joan is on a hunt for New England Asters… don’t ask why! Thus far I have lead her to White Wood Asters (a few days ago) and New York Asters (yesterday)… so the hunt continues!

We headed out a bit earlier that I usually do (around 2:30 instead of more toward 4:00). I was hoping that maybe there would be a bit more activity earlier in the afternoon than there had been on my previous excursions. I was willing to sacrifice good light for photographic opportunity. I was not disappointed! Of course we’ll never know if it was the hour or the luck of the draw!

The green frog was sitting in the middle of the beaver pond maybe five or six feet from where I sat on the bank when I noticed it; I had been sitting in the same spot for five or ten minutes when I noticed it. I do not know if had been there all of the time or if had appeared just before I saw it…. so much for the observant nature photographer! Any way, wWe watched each other for fifteen or twenty minutes. It was very unconcerned about my presence.

Presumably, it was hoping to catch a passing insect. Of course, I was hoping to photograph it catching an insect. It was much more patient that I as it was still sitting there when I arose and moved on.

The toad on the other hand was rather jumpy! It is quite amazing that a 1.5 inch long creature can end up two or three feet away in a single bound. I stalked this “fellow” for a couple of leaps, at which point it must have decided to try relying on its camouflage. When I finally found it again, it kept still and I was able to shoot a number of frames.

The highlight of the afternoon was a very brief glimpse  of a large darner ovipositing. Dragonflies are very wary when laying eggs. After I spied this individual, I turned slowly and carefully to get the two frames I did. As soon as I made a larger movement in an attempt to get a better angle off she went! The same was true for the tandem pair of meadow hawks… I made just two exposures before they were off again.

Hunting meadowhawks are another story… both of these females kept making brief hunting forays returning to the same perch after each foray. As usual they were very unconcerned by my presence and I was able to slowly move closer and get the best angle possible. Whatever they were hunting must have been small as I never either of them with prey… or maybe they were not very successful hunters!

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