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.
[scrollGallery id=449 – autoscroll = false width = 600 height = 600 useCaptions = true]
Hi Frank
Great Calico Pennant pics. Love the second one. On the damselfly shots. Any chance you can zoom in on the thorax and than a second one on the end of the abdomen? Might be able to ID one of them. . Is the green one a female? If so, this will be difficult.
Blessings
K
Comment by Kevin — 5 July 2016 @ 2:51 PM