Photographs by Frank

22 June 2018

Slow Day at Loverens Mill

Filed under: Monadnock Region,Nature Conservancy properties,Odontates,Summer,wildflowers — Tags: , , — Frank @ 9:30 PM

Yesterday I headed to the Nature Conservancy’s Loverens Mill preserve. Joan had been there earlier in the week and said that she had seen ebony jewelwings and “green-eyed dragonflies” (emeralds, perhaps?) there. The temperature was in the mid-70’s F, it was partly cloudy and essentially calm.

It was a slow ode day. I saw exactly four damselflies (and no dragonflies) in the first couple of hours I was there: two ebony jewelwings and two drab brown teneral damsels (probably bluets of some sort). The drab brown individuals were the only odes I saw during my three trips along the boardwalk in the swamp proper.

Things picked up a little bit when I walked the road. There were a few more brown damsels and, about three hours after I left the truck, I saw a single dragonfly, an immature male slaty skimmer.

[scrollGallery id=582 – autoscroll = false width = 600 height = 600 useCaptions = true]

 

15 June 2018

Yesterday’s Photos

Filed under: Monadnock Region,Odontates,wildflowers — Tags: , — Frank @ 11:00 AM

Yesterday morning I headed out to run some errands — I needed a birthday present for the boss — of course, I took my camera.

On my way home I stopped to look for odes at the boat launch on the Contoocook in Greenfield. The weather was cool and blustery and the odes were few. I did make an interesting photo of a small moth trying to stay out of the wind.

I also took a walk up the rail bed from Elmwood Junction to the bridge across Powdermill Pond. Here there were small numbers of odes about, mainly chalk-fronted corporals. The find of the day was a teneral female black-shouldered spinylegs drying out on a fern about five or six feet from the water.

[scrollGallery id=579 – autoscroll = false width = 600 height = 600 useCaptions = true]

 

12 June 2018

Lady Slippers

Filed under: Audubon Sanctuaries,Monadnock Region,Spring,wildflowers — Tags: — Frank @ 12:00 PM

Mid-June is peak season for lady slippers here in the Monadnock region.  These showy flowers are fairly rare and, at most sites where they grow, the number of individual plants is, in my experience, small. However, along the Mill Pond trail at New Hampshire Audubon’s Willard Pond Sanctuary there is a “grove” consisting of dozens of these plants in a relatively small area. Yesterday afternoon, I payed a visit to this wonderful spot to make a few photographs.

These flowers are growing under a relatively heavy canopy which creates dappled sunlight. I spent some time crawling around on my hands an knees looking for the right combination of light on a flower and relatively dark background. (All of these photos are in natural light.)

At one point during my crawl, I noticed how many of the leaves around are coated in pine pollen; as is my truck. (Mid-June is flowering time for our pine trees as well.) I took a short break from the flowers at one point when I noticed “nice light” on a pollen covered basswood leaf.

[scrollGallery id=578 – autoscroll = false width = 600 height = 600 useCaptions = true]

 

10 June 2018

Four Species in Twelve Feet

Filed under: Monadnock Region,Odontates,Spring,wildflowers — Tags: , — Frank @ 7:00 PM

During my walk this morning, I stopped at a sunny spot along a forest road to see what odes were present. Sunny spots in a wooded landscape are “hot spots” that concentrate odes.

The road is roughly eight feet wide and the sunny spot was roughly twelve feet long.

I was able to photograph four species of dragonflies in the small area: hudsonian whiteface, chalk-fronted corporal, racket-tailed emerald and one that I have not identified yet*. There were small numbers (3-6) individuals of the first two species and single individuals of the last two species in this small patch of sunlight.

As it was yesterday, chalk-fronted corporals were abundant along the road with small numbers of hudsonian whitefaces also present.

[scrollGallery id=577 – autoscroll = false width = 600 height = 600 useCaptions = true]

* An immature male frosted whiteface. Thanks to Nick et al. from the NEOdes mailing list for the ID.

 

8 June 2018

Small Critters

Filed under: Amphibians,Odontates,Other Insects,Spring,wildflowers — Tags: , , — Frank @ 10:30 PM

This morning, after an absence of almost two weeks*, I took a walk up the unmaintained section of Brimstone Corner Road just to see what was around.

Ode-wise, the most common species were still the “early birds”… Hudsonian whitefaces (yellow individuals only) and chalk-fronted corporals (of both sexes). The numbers were small about six whitefaces and a dozen corporals in the three miles I walked.

I also observed a single brown-grey damselfly (probably a female bluet of some sort) and a female racket-tailed emerald.

There were a number of other small critters about. That is, besides the black flies and the mosquitoes (although neither of these were present in numbers large enough to be bothersome). I saw two red efts and a small (about the length of the first joint of my thumb) wood frog. Small numbers of at least three species of butterflies and one moth were also out and about.

Plant-wise, the spring ephemerals (trillium, etc.) are gone but a number of small summer flowers are in bloom or just about to open up.

[scrollGallery id=576 – autoscroll = false width = 600 height = 600 useCaptions = true]

* I spent ten days in Maryland visiting my mother who is in a rehab facility after breaking both a wrist and a hip.

 

19 May 2018

Ode Season Progression

Filed under: Mammals,Monadnock Region,Odontates,Other Insects,Spring,wildflowers — Tags: , , , , — Frank @ 10:05 AM

The ode season progresses.

The hudsonian whitefaces are maturing. Both males and females emerge with yellow and black markings. As the males mature the yellow spots turn red. Yesterday, about one in ten of the hudsonian whitefaces I saw were red or reddish.

Hudsonian whitefaces were still, by far, the most common ode around. However, small numbers of chalk-fronted corporals and brownish-grey damselflies (most probably a bluet of some sort) have appeared in the past few days.

[scrollGallery id=572 – autoscroll = false width = 600 height = 600 useCaptions = true]

While prowling the “neighborhood” with a camera set up to make close up photos of smallish insects, I often find other things to point my lens at… other insects (especially butterflies) and flowers (of both wild and garden ilk) are most common.

Yesterday, while I was kneeling near a stone wall stalking a chalk-fronted corporal, a chipmunk poked its head out from between two stones. He was a very curious “fellow”*. Every time I moved he would duck back into the crevice, but after a few seconds he would reappear. I was close enough to photograph him without taking the extension tube from between my camera and lens.

[scrollGallery id=573 – autoscroll = false width = 600 height = 600 useCaptions = true]

* I say “fellow”, but I did not see enough of this individual to actually determine its sex.

12 May 2018

Spring Ephemerals

Filed under: Early Spring,Monadnock Region,wildflowers — Tags: — Frank @ 10:00 PM

Despite today’s cool wet weather (45 degrees and showers), spring has finally sprung here in NH. I saw my first odes of the season the middle of last week (no photos though), the early green of spring has exploded in the last week or so and the early spring ephemerals are in bloom.

I photographed a few of these flowers on my walk yesterday.

[scrollGallery id=569 – autoscroll = false width = 600 height = 600 useCaptions = true]

 

13 August 2017

A Walk at Loveren’s Mill

Filed under: Nature Conservancy properties,Odontates,Other Insects,Summer,wildflowers,Wildlife — Tags: , , , , — 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.

[scrollGallery id=525 – autoscroll = false width = 600 height = 600 useCaptions = false]

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!

 

18 July 2016

Loveren’s Mill in the Late Afternoon

Filed under: Monadnock Region,Nature Conservancy properties,Odontates,Summer,wildflowers — Tags: , , — 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.

[scrollGallery id=452 – autoscroll = false width = 600 height = 600 useCaptions = true]

 

5 July 2016

A Perfect Day for Odes, Except…

Filed under: Monadnock Region,Odontates,Summer,wildflowers,Wildlife — Tags: , , — 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.

[scrollGallery id=449 – autoscroll = false width = 600 height = 600 useCaptions = true]

 

« Newer Posts — Older Posts »

Powered by WordPress