wild flowers « Photographs by Frank

13 August 2017

A Walk at Loveren’s Mill

Filed under: Nature Conservancy properties,Odontates,Other Insects,Summer,wildflowers,Wildlife — Tags: dragonflies, fungi, insects, moths, wild flowers — Frank @ 11:00 AM

Yesterday afternoon, Joan and I took a walk at the Nature Conservancy’s Loveren’s Mill property. This site, which lies along the North Branch river and is partly in Antrim, contains a rare white cedar swamp. I brought along the “ode rig” and thus concentrated on photographing small things close up.

There were a smallish number but a good variety of odes present… ebony jewelwings along the fast moving parts of the river and meadow hawks and some unidentified (and unphotographed) damselflies along the woods roads. Oddly, we saw no odes along the boardwalk in the swamp proper.

The most common, by far, insect present was a small (about an inch across), drab tan moth. There were spots along the road where each foot step stirred up a dozen or so individuals.

Botanically, there was an interesting mix of early season spring ephemerals (e.g. painted trillium, clintonia and bunchberry) in fruit and late season wildflowers (e.g. joe pye weed, asters and goldenrod) in bloom. Additionally, the damp summer has been very good for the fungi and I photographed a number of different mushrooms.

Sorry for the lack of captions/titles. The last upgrade to the blog software seems to have introduced a small incompatibility with the gallery software. I thought I had figured out a work around for the previous post, but now I can not remember what I did the other day!

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18 July 2016

Loveren’s Mill in the Late Afternoon

Filed under: Monadnock Region,Nature Conservancy properties,Odontates,Summer,wildflowers — Tags: butterflies, damselflies, wild flowers — Frank @ 4:15 PM

Late last Tuesday (12 July) afternoon I headed over to the Nature Conservancy’s Loveren’s Mill preserve. This property contains a rare Atlantic White Cedar swamp and is often good for finding rare odes that prefer this habitat.

Walking along the woods road near the entrance, I spotted a number of butterflies nectaring on the abundant wildflowers. However, there was a complete lack of odes.

This dearth of odes continued as I turned on to the trail and headed to the boardwalk that heads into the swamp proper. I saw two damselflies along the boardwalk and exactly zero dragonflies during the entire time I was out.

However, I did have some fun photographing the wildflowers.

Butterfly (id needed)

Great Spangled Fritillary

Damselfly #1 (id needed)

Damselfly #2 (id needed)

Wildflower #1

Aster

Wildflower #2

Asters

Black-eyes Susans

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5 July 2016

A Perfect Day for Odes, Except…

Filed under: Monadnock Region,Odontates,Summer,wildflowers,Wildlife — Tags: damselflies, dragonflies, wild flowers — Frank @ 2:00 PM

Saturday (2 July) was warm (temperature in the low 70’s) and mostly sunny. Perfect weather for odes, except… for the strong gusty winds!!

I decided to head “down back” in spite of the wind. My instinct, which said that there would be few odes flying because of the wind, proved true.

There were a couple (one each male and female) of calico pennants still hanging around the yard (low in the grass). I watched the male calico pennant for some time. Each time the sun came out from behind a cloud, this individual assumed the classic obelisking pose with abdomen held almost perpendicular to the ground. When the sun “disappeared” it quickly lowered its abdomen and resumed the pennant pose (with the abdomen parallel to the ground) for which it is named.

Obelisking is a thermoregulation strategy where the dragonfly orients its body to minimize its exposure to the sun and thus minimize solar heat gain.

Down by the beaver pond there were frosted whitefaces and slaty skimmers patrolling territories out over the water. As I moved about in the wet meadow, I stirred up a half-dozen or so damselflies which quickly settled back down away from the wind and deep in the vegetation

Botanically, the blue-flag irises are completely done for the year, the rose pogonia are near their peak and the swamp candlesticks are just beginning to bloom.

Calico Pennant (male) Grooming

Calico Pennant (male) Oblisking

Calico Pennant (female)

Damselfly (ID Needed(

Bluet (male)

Rose Pogonia

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15 May 2016

Black Fly Season

Filed under: Monadnock Region,wildflowers — Tags: wild flowers — Frank @ 1:00 PM

And the black flies, the little black flies
Always the black fly no matter where you go
I’ll die with the black fly a-pickin’ my bones

— The Black Fly Song, by Wade Hemsworth

Those of us who live in the northern woods are “blessed” with black fly season. In this neck of the woods, black fly season is mercifully short, lasting roughly from Mother’s Day to Father’s Day. The farther north one goes, the longer the season lasts.

Black flies hang out in the duff on the ground in the woods. From there, they ascend to attack any warm-blooded creature who dares enter their domain. This behavior makes the wild flower photographer who must lay on the ground in said woods a prime target for these blood-thirsty creatures.

However, properly equipped with a full blown bug jacket, photographs can be made*.

Purple Trilium

Wild Oats

Fern Furled

Wildflower (ID needed)

Hobblebush #1

Painted Trillium #1

Painted Trillium #2

Painted Trillium #3

Hobblebush #2

* Even though looking into the viewfinder through the no-see-um mesh of a bug jacket is less than desirable.

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7 September 2015

Brimstone Corner Road

Filed under: Monadnock Region,Odontates,Summer,wildflowers — Tags: dragonflies, wild flowers — Frank @ 12:30 PM

Yesterday afternoon, I made a right at the bottom of our driveway and headed out on a short stroll on the unmaintained section of Brimstone Corner Road. I was expecting to find both meadowhawks and asters. I was not disappointed.

I saw about six meadowhawks in total, including a single red (i.e. male) individual. The others were yellow… i.e. either females or immature males and hard to tell apart without netting them. My guess is that they were autumn meadowhawks but, again without netting them, it is hard to be certain. These were the only odes I saw.

There were many asters along the roadside; mostly the small white type that grows in large clusters. However, there were scattered larger, more deeply colored types mixed in here and there.

Meadowhawk (female, probably an Autumn) #1

Meadowhawk (male, probably an Autumn)

Meadowhawk (female, probably an Autumn) #2

Wildflower

Aster

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18 July 2015

Zealand Falls

Filed under: Landscapes,Odontates,Summer,the White Mountains,wildflowers,Wildlife — Tags: damselflies, dragonflies, landscapes, snakes, wild flowers — Frank @ 4:00 PM

Yesterday (Friday, 17 Jul) Joan had a plant survey scheduled for the northern White Mountains. The forecast was for perfect hiking weather, so I went along and spent the day meandering along the trail to Zealand Falls and the nearby AMC hut.

The bright sunny weather and timing (middle of the day) were not going to make for great landscape photos, but I was hoping for some odes, especially for more northern species. The map showed a number of ponds/wetlands along the upper portion of the trail, so I was expecting good “hunting”.

The first critter I encountered along the trail was a garter snake sunning itself at the trail’s edge. Of course my approach spooked it, but it hung around under the shrubs long enough for me to photograph it.

Surprisingly, the beaver ponds were not the ode “hot spot” that I thought they might be. Maybe they are too high (between roughly 3000 and 3500 feet) for water warm enough to support many species.

I did see small numbers of larger dragonflies (probably darners of some sort) patrolling out over the water. Along the shore of one of the ponds, I also found (and was able to photograph) some bluets (either Boreal or Northern) and a few male chalk-fronted corporals.

I observed a single female bluet and roughly a dozen males. When I first spotted the female she was already flying in tandem with a male. As I watched, the pair were harassed by a number of males trying to break up them up (and thus have their own chance of mating with her). The harassment was for naught, as the pair finally formed a mating wheel.

Garter Snake #1

Garter Snake #2

Chalk-fronted Corporal (male)

Bluet Mating Wheel (either Boreal or Northern)

Zealand Pond

Zealand Falls

Golden Thread

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6 July 2015

Campbell Pond Odes

Filed under: Monadnock Region,Odontates,Summer,wildflowers,Wildlife — Tags: damselflies, dragonflies, wild flowers — Frank @ 11:00 AM

Last Thursday (2 July) afternoon I spent a couple of hours looking for odes at Campbell Pond. I arrived at about 3 PM. This pond was once the public water supply for the Town of Antrim. It is now set aside as conservation land and has a completely undeveloped shore line. This was my first “odeing” trip to the pond.

There is no vehicular access to the pond but it is a short walk along a well maintained woods road into the pond. I saw my first ode, a calico pennant, maybe twenty five feet down the road. I continued to see small numbers (one or two individuals) of a variety of species all along the road.

When I got to the stream flowing out of the pond things changed. There were dozens of ebony jewelwings of both sexes around the stream where it flows over the road.

Out over the pond proper there were many odes, probably calico pennants, flying and (I think) ovipositing. There were also smaller numbers of chalk-fronted corporals present.

Calico Pennant

Calico Pennant with Prey

Lancet Clubtail (male)

Swamp Spreadwing (male)

Variable Dancer (female)

Ebony Jewelwing (female)

Ebony Jewelwing (male)

Chalk-fronted Corporal (male)

Fly

Wildflower

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24 June 2015

You Can Observe A Lot By Watching

Filed under: Amphibians,Monadnock Region,Other Insects,Summer,wildflowers,Wildlife — Tags: frogs, insects, wild flowers — Frank @ 5:00 PM

The title of this post is a quote attributed to Yogi Berra and how true it is!

When one is low to the ground with a camera set up to take photos of small things (such as odes) one finds oneself attuned to a world that is hidden in plain sight. There is a lot of “stuff” going on between the ground and six inches of elevation!

Much of the “stuff” one sees are insects, but I often observe other types of critters as well. The immature wood frog is one of those.

I had just stood up from photographing a damselfly and had taken a step or two when I heard a faint rustle in the old leaves underfoot. I quickly dropped to my knees to investigate and after searching for a few minutes, I finally found the source of said rustle… a wood frog the size of my thumbnail, unmoving and doing its best impression of a dried leaf!

I moved a bit trying to find a “window” in the detritus on the ground without scaring away the frog. I successfully found an angle with a clear view of the frog and was rewarded with a nice photo of this fairly common but seldom seen animal.

Grasshopper

Insecta Fantastica

Immature Woodfrog

Another good subject for a camera set up to photograph odes are small wildflowers. One can easily make nice photos of the flowers nicely isolated against out of focus backgrounds.

Wildflower

Hawkweed

Yarrow

Fern

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27 August 2014

Up North

Filed under: Landscapes,Odontates,Other Insects,Summer,wildflowers — Tags: damselflies, dragonflies, insects, wild flowers — Frank @ 6:00 PM

Monday morning, we packed up the camper and headed north. Our goal was the Errol, NH area as Joan had some plant conservation volunteer business to attend to.

We arrived at Mollidgewock State Park in the middle of the afternoon, dropped off the camper and spent the remaining daylight hours exploring and photographing. The highlight of the evening was watching (through the spotting scope and too far away to photograph) three otters eating and playing in the Androscoggin River.

Tuesday, we awoke to dense fog over the river but it burnt off quickly and the day turned hot (low 80’s) and sunny as predicted.

After breakfast, Joan spent four or five hours locating a population of rare plants (the only known population of this species in the US; there are about ten other isolated populations in Canada) and collecting seeds from them for the New England Wildflower Society.

I spent the time photographing the local roadside flora and the odes and had fun despite the harsh light.

By midafternoon, we were back on the road meandering towards home.

Landscapes

Androscoggin River at Cambridge, NH

Lake Umbagog at Sunset #1

Lake Umbagog at Sunset #2

Dead Diamond River (Second College Grant, NH)

Odes (and a grasshopper!)

ID Needed

Spreadwing (male)

Grasshopper

Spotted Spreadwing (male)

Meadowhawk (male) #1

Bluets (tandem pair)

Bluet (male)

Meadowhawk (male) #2

Flora

Common Arrowhead

Meadow Sweet

Pearly Everlasting

Ox Eye Daisy

Common Yarrow

Canada Hawkweed

Birch Leaf

Seedhead #1

Seedhead #2

Seedhead #3

Seedhead #4

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“Down Back”, again.

Filed under: Monadnock Region,Odontates,wildflowers — Tags: damselflies, dragonflies, wild flowers — Frank @ 11:00 AM

Sunday afternoon I donned my waders and spent a couple of hours “down back” in the beaver-made wetland at the back of our property. A short while after I left, Joan headed down in the same general direction to do some botanizing. She says that she saw me but I must have been completely engrossed in the odes since I did not notice her at all… makes me wonder what else I am missing!

As has been the case for most of the summer, the numbers of odes seems to be low. The most common odes on this visit were the large darners patrolling both low at the margins of the open water and between roughly five and ten feet over the wet meadow.

The only other dragonflies I saw were small numbers (roughly half a dozen) male meadowhawks present where woodland meets wetland; I saw no females.

There were also a smattering of damselflies (less than a dozen total) including bluets, spreadwings, a single female forktail and a lone sedge sprite.

I arrived back at the house a roughly 6 PM to find a feeding swarm of mixed darners (probably 50 or more individuals) in the yard down by the garden.