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.
[scrollGallery id=381 autoscroll = false width = 600 height = 600 useCaptions = true]
Hi Frank. Great mating wheel shot of the bluets. Have to see if its possible to ID from the photo. Went to Zealand Falls and the AMC hut many years ago when we did some hiking on the Bond Cliff trail. Beautiful area. No clubtails at the falls around the boulders?
Great pics
K
Comment by Kevin — 19 July 2015 @ 10:02 PM
Bond? Zealand?? Brought back memories of a photo shoot I did in Northern Wisconsin. At the Bond Falls there was a section called the “Zee Falls.”
Like the profile of Garter Snake #2 and the already mentioned the mating wheel. I have no clue as to their identification!
Comment by Joe Kennedy — 23 July 2015 @ 2:45 PM