Yesterday, Joan, her cousin Suzy and I took a trip to the Zealand Falls area in the White Mountains.
Joan and Suzy headed for the top of Zealand Falls and the AMC hut. I headed up the same trail at a much slower pace. My goal was the downstream end of the extensive beaver-made wetlands complex (which is downstream from Zealand Pond). It is always a nice hike and I was in search of odes.
On the way up, I observed a number of darners at a couple of points along the river and along a creek feeding into the river. No photos though, as these were typical darners which are constantly on the move.
Within a couple of minutes of arriving at the first beaver pond I saw two dragonflies… a blue corporal (I think) and another dragonfly with green eyes. Neither hung around long enough for a good look much less a photograph. Without success, I waited for some time hoping that they would return. Eventually I moseyed on up the trail. I saw no odes for the next fifteen or so minutes and decided to turn around.
On the way back across the boardwalk I finally espied another dragonfly with bright green eyes; an emerald of some sort. It perched briefly and I was able to make two exposures of it before it took off again… the first photo, below, is one of them.
One the way down, I stopped at the first beaver pond again, hoping that I might re-spot one of the two individuals I saw there originally. I was rewarded with a second sighting of the green-eyed delta-spotted spiketail. It briefly perched near me; almost too close for me to photograph. I was able to lean back enough to get it in focus and was, again, able to make only two exposures before it flew off.
I made it back to the car about five minutes before Joan and Suzy. We hightailed it home so that Joan could make her evening Parks and Recreation Commission meeting.
[scrollGallery id=524 – autoscroll = false width = 1000 height = 1000 useCaptions = true]
He’s B A C K !!!!
Mr. Odes has returned to the blog!!
Good to see you still have it.
Comment by Joe Kennedy — 12 August 2017 @ 1:08 PM
Nice emeralds shot Frank. Love that trail at Zealand Falls. Will see if we can figure out the emerald
K
Comment by Kevin Curry — 17 August 2017 @ 8:58 AM