Posts in Category: p&s 4 wildlife
Ebony Jewelwing, Emmon’s Preserve
I intended to get back to Emmon’s Preserve and the little tumbling falls on the Batson River in early August to catch the mating dance of the Ebony Jewelwings that live there, but the press of affairs (as they say) and the fact that we were a car down from mid-July to mid-August kept me from it until yesterday afternoon. There are still Ebony Jewelwings by the rapids, but the mating flights were all over.
Still, an Ebony Jewelwing is a an Ebony Jewelwing…with that unmistakable bright metallic green body flashing in the patches of sun in the forest and over the stream. Except, of course, when it is electric blue.
While you could be forgiven for thinking this is a different species, this is the same bug, just in different light. When the bug moves on, it will be green again. This is a much rarer view, generally you only get a glimpse of this look as the Jewelwing settles briefly in the necessary light, and then flits on. The emerald green is what you see 96% of the time.
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast. 1680mm equivalent field of view. 1) –1/3EV exposure compensation, f5.8 @ 1/200th @ ISO 160. 2) –1/3EV exposure compensation. f5.8 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 320. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Savannah Sparrow
A week ago today I made a brief run out to the Blueberry Plains (Kennebunk Plains otherwise) to see how the Northern Blazing Star bloom was shaping up. While there this Savannah Sparrow popped up and put on a little show for me. The Kennebunk Plains is one of the few places in Southern Maine where Savannah is likely to be seen. Further south, in Cape May, New Jersey for instance, I see them a lot right behind the dunes along the ocean, but for some reason, here, they rare in that habitat. Much more likely on the Plains…which stands to reason given their name. 🙂
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1EV exposure compensation. 1680mm equivalent field of view (840 optical plus 2x digital tel-converter function). f5.8 @ 1/320th to 1/500th @ ISO 100. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Six-Spotted Fishing Spider
I am in Virginia for meetings at the office this week, and during lunch yesterday I went down to the little industrial estate pond at the edge of our parking lot. There were six species of dragonflies, including a lot of really fresh looking female Eastern Pondhawks (and a Belted Kingfisher!), but the highlight was this spider. According the wiki on the subject, Six-spotted Fishing Spiders should have been common just about everywhere I have lived or visited in North America, but I am certain this is the first one I have ever seen…or at least the first one I have ever looked at. They walk on water, but they live along the shore. This one is hunting. Apparently they will sit like this on the shore or over water, for hours, waiting for prey to come within reach. They can dive under a few inches as well. They are looking for tadpoles, invertebrates, and the occasional small minnow. Hence the name.
The striking pattern and large size (as big as a common Garden Spider) makes them easy to identify (once you actually look at one). I think it could be my best spider to date!
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1 EV exposure compensation. 1680mm equivalent field of view. f5.8 @ 1/640th @ ISO 400. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Here Froggy!
There are lots of frogs, of course, at the pond where I am doing most of my dragonfly and damselfly hunting these days. Sometimes I just have to shoot one. I am always fascinated by that brass eye, which always seems to be looking right at you, no matter where you stand.
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1 EV exposure compensation. 1240mm equivalent field of view. f5.8 @ 1/320th @ ISO 100. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Familiar Bluet Mating Wheel
As difficult as it is to imagine (at least for me) today is my 65th birthday. That used to be a real milestone, when it was the legal retirement age, and it still carries some weight. You can not believe the number of Medicare Supplement letters I have gotten in the past 6 months! (Unless you have been there yourself.) But no…I don’t feel any different today than I did yesterday, or significantly different than I did a year ago for that matter. In fact, there are parts of me that I begin to suspect do not age at all. Mostly this is a good thing.
For instance I am still learning…though I am beginning to realize that Damselflies may be right at the edge of my attention span. They are not easy to identify, especially from a photo or in the kinds of looks you get in the field…unless you catch them and use a hand-lens. I am probably not going there.
So I think this is a pair of Familiar Bluets mating. Beyond its ID value, I like the image because of the other elements as well: The spiny seed heads, the arch of the reed, and the way the damselflies are framed by the broken reed in the background.
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1 EV exposure compensation. (You might have noticed that my conventional –1/3EV has advanced to –1EV over the past few weeks. This is largely due to the damselflies, and specifically to the blues on the flies. They are so intense that they burn to white even at –1/3EV.) 1680mm equivalent field of view. f5.8 @ 1/500th @ ISO 125. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Eastern Pondhawk with Prey
I found this female Eastern Pondhawk with prey (I can’t say more than that…I can not make out exactly what she is eating in any of my shots) at Quest Pond in Kennebunk ME. I angled around her, in and out, for several moments attempting to catch a clear view, but her posture, with the wings forward (typical Pondhawk), and her position on the limb, kept the prey well shielded. Several Pondhawks, both male and female, frequent the edge of the forest here where there is a slight opening, about 250 feet from the pond’s edge, and generally shaded.
I like this shot because it shows off the transparency of the wings.
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1 EV exposure compensation. 1680mm equivalent (840mm optical zoom plus 2x digital tel-converter function). f5.8 @ 1/200th @ ISO 125.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Of Waxwings and Powdered Dancers: Life and Death in the Grass
I have wondered, often, why, with so many dragon and damselflies in residence at Quest Pond, there are not more birds. Of course maybe I just answered my own question, in reverse. Maybe there are so many dragon and damselflies at Quest Pond because there are few birds there. ?? Still, I was not surprised to see a couple of largish birds swooping over the far end of the pond the other day…I was more surprised to see what they were when they came up to the end of the pond where I was. Cedar Waxwings.
There were three, and they set up in an exposed medium-sized ornamental maple at the edge of the pond, and flew out to take bugs just off the ground, then up to the overhanging branches at the edge of the forest that starts 250 feet from the pond’s edge on that side. Then back again. Back and forth, taking insects on about every other swoop. On the perch they were on high alert all the time, watching air above the grass for prey.
Cedar Waxwings are fascinating, and beautiful birds. The silky feathers, the bright colors, the black mask, the big bold eye…what is not to like? Several times as I maneuvered around to get photographs, the Waxwings came within inches of me on the wing. It was exciting. I now realize that my passage through the grass was stirring up the prey, and facilitating their hunt.
What they were catching were Powdered Dancers. I had noticed, and even photographed, these strange damselflies over my days at the pond. They are everywhere in the grass and trees around the pond…by far the most numerous single species. They flutter…they stumble…through the air in weak flights of a few yards at a time. When you compare their flight to, say, a Familiar Bluet…which flies like a high powered, laser guided, helicopter…wings a blur, forward, backward, up, down…effortlessly moving in perfectly straight lines to its goal…you could be forgiven for thinking the Dancers are not damselflies at all. If you get close enough for a photograph (or even a good look) though, you see that they are unmistakably damsels…if rather dull ones.
Most of what I see are the females, and all of them are Powdered Dancers. I have only found a few males. They seem to keep closer to the water, low in the vegetation right at the edge, and I have not see a single one in flight.
Which, of course, is just as well for them when the Cedar Waxwings are in attendance.
There are, in fact, so many Powdered Dancer females around the pond that I do not fear the health of their population if the Cedar Waxwings take a few…on every other pass. It looks to be hard work for the Waxwings for minimum reward (the Dancers are not very big). In fact, I have not seen the Waxwings since that day, so very likely they decided there were easier pickings else where…some fruit tree or berry bush coming into season maybe. Still the drama was very interesting to watch while it was on…and both the Cedar Waxwings and the Dancers have their own unique attractions.
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1 EV exposure compensation. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Polyphemus Rescue (maybe)
On my Tuesday photopowl I had to make a stop at the grocery store. When I came back out I found this Polyphemus moth lying helpless on its side on the sidewalk near the bicycle rack where had chained up my electric scooter. This is a big moth…6 inches from wing-tip to wing-tip.
I thought it might be dead, but when I picked it up, and put it on my scooter seat for safety while I decided what to do with it (and how I could get some pictures), it fluttered down on its own energy. It was clearly weak and disorientated (perhaps stunned from an impact, and/or confused by the daylight) and had difficulty getting off its side. However, when I moved it to the shade under some trees at the edge of the parking lot, it righted itself and vibrated its wings very rapidly. I think that was a defense action. After grabbing a few shots, I moved it to deeper vegetation well back from the parking lot, where it was darker, and where there was no chance it would be stepped on by a passing shopper.
Polyphemus, like most of the big moths, do not eat as adults and only live two weeks at the longest. It is, of course, possible, even likely, that this Polyphemus was simply on its last legs anyway, and did not survive the night. In the slightly closer view you can see the very bushy antennas, which mark this specimen as a male.
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1 EV exposure compensation. 1) 24mm macro, plus 1.5x digital tel-converter function. f4 @ 1/160th @ ISO 100. 2) 1240mm equivalent. f5.8 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 250.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Yellow Garden Spider with Widow Skimmer Wing
If you don’t like spiders you might want to look away!
I was making a lunch hour photoprowl on my Pondhawk-green electric scooter yesterday, walking around Quest Pond to see if any new dragonflies were out, when my work phone rang. I sat down on the bank as it looked like it might be a lengthy call (a three way conference call, and you know how those go) and right there, not 5 feet in front of me in the reeds bordering the pond, just at my sitting eyelevel, was this spider in its web with prey. I could not see, holding the camera up with one hand as I talked, what exactly the spider had caught, but I suspected it was a dragonfly…what else at Quest Pond? It is actually the wing of Widow Skimmer…which has even less meat on it than a chicken wing. I hope the spider was not wanting more than a snack.
For non spider fans, this is the common Yellow Garden Spider, and despite its fierce looks and large size (this female was close to an inch long in the body), it is actually not a bad neighbor, as it generally dines on insects we like even less. I have mixed feelings about the Widow Skimmer…but if was going to take any dragonfly, there are certainly enough Widow Skimmers at Quest Pond this summer so that one will not be missed. If you can get by the fact that it is a spider, you have to admit there is a certain attraction to the bold yellow and black pattern…kind of like police tape at a disaster scene 🙂
And yes, it was a lengthy call.
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1 EV exposure compensation. 1240mm equivalent field of view (840mm optical plus 1.5x digital tel-converter function). f5.8 @ 1/640th @ ISO 125.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Calico Pennant
If the Calico Pennant were a bit bigger, it would almost certainly rank as one of the most stunning of Dragonflies. The cherry red and lacquered black diamond body design…the red saddlebags with their intricate orange veining, ten wing spots and four bright pink Pterostigma (those spots near the wing tips)…it is quite the bug!
However, it is so small, by comparison to some of the dragonflies it is likely to be found among, that it’s beauty can easily be overlooked. This specimen is only about an inch and a half long, very likely larger on your screen than it is in life.
If you will allow me to get all Odonata geeky on you for a moment, those pterostigma are interesting. They are thicker, heavier wing cells ideally placed to damp out the vibration that would otherwise set up in the wing as the dragongly glided. Without the pterostigma, both the speed and length of the possible glide would decrease by 10 to 15%. And you thought (and I thought until this morning when I looked them up) they were just little pink spots.
I have only ever seen the Calico perched up like this twice. Most of the time I find them perched only inches from the ground…on some slightly protruding grass stem.
While these were all taken along the edge of Quest Pond, my only other image of a Calico was taken on the Kennebunk Plains, literally a mile from the nearest body of water.
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1 EV exposure compensation. 1680mm equivalent field of view (840mm optical plus 2x digital tel-converter function). 1-3) f5.8 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 250-320. 4) 1/200th @ ISO 125.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.