Photographs by Frank

4 August 2013

Another New Species for Me

Filed under: Odontates,Summer,The "New" Yard & Environs — Tags: , — Frank @ 11:00 PM

This afternoon I took a stroll up the road to an old log yard I have visited many times before. This was my first visit in the current “ode season”. The old log yard is quite a bit more overgrown that in years past and the blackberries are just starting to ripen… not that I sampled any!

The temperature was in the low 70’s and it was partly cloudy. We had a brief thunderstorm after I got back to the house.

I was surprised by the lack of ode activity this visit. In years past this site was always abuzz with ode activity… but not today.

I saw no damselflies. I did see maybe a dozen female meadowhawks over the 90 or so minutes I spent there. Presumably, these individuals are spending time away from the water feeding and maturing and will head back to the water to mate in due time.

Other than that, I saw only two other individuals: a male black-shouldered spinyleg and a female common whitetail. The black-shouldered spinyleg was a new species for me. That makes two new species in two consecutive days!

The spinyleg came out of nowhere and alit on a leaf near where I was standing. I instantly knew this was not a species I commonly see… it was too big and it had a rather well developed “club” at the end of its abdomen.

I made a few exposures of its dorsal side. It then moved  a few feet away and I was able to get a more lateral view after shifting my position carefully. After three or four more exposures he took off and disappeared into the woods as quickly as he arrived. The total time between first and last exposure… two minutes and three seconds according to the exif data.

When I got back home, I noticed that the purple cone flowers along the wall at the driveway were covered with bees. I spent some minutes making many exposures of the half dozen or so bees present… I’ll only show one photo so as not to bore you!

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“Down Back”, Yesterday Afternoon

Filed under: Odontates,Summer,The "New" Yard & Environs,wildflowers — Tags: , , — Frank @ 2:00 PM

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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The First Two Days of August

Filed under: Odontates,Other Insects,Summer,wildflowers — Tags: , , , — Frank @ 12:00 PM

These photos were made around the yard on Thursday. It was quite unusual to see large darners hanging around the yard.

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On Friday evening we put the kayaks in Gregg Lake and explored the wetlands at the north end.

Joan dragged her boat over the beaver dam and explored a bit on the upper side. The water on the upper side is roughly two feet higher than the lower side. On the return trip Joan fell in while trying to get back into her boat! I found enough to photograph without getting out of my kayak.

It was rather late in the day for odes, so I did not take the “ode rig”. Rather I took the little V1 and looked for other subjects.

There were a lot of vesper bluets out and about, so I’ll have to head out again soon with the ode rig. I did not even try photographing them with the V1 as it simply does not have anywhere near the magnification needed.

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