Posts in Category: dragonflies

Maine! Halloween Pennant

Halloween Pennant: Kennebunk Plains Nature Conservancy, York County, Maine, USA — While out photographing the Northern Blazing Star boom last week, I came across this fairly fresh Halloween Pennant. I am always happy to see one. This one was just back from the edge of Day Brook Pond. OM Systems OM-1 with ED 100-400mm zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom bird modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro. ISO 200 @ f6.3 @ 1/640th.

Maine! Calico Pennants

Calico Pennant: Kennebunk Plains Nature Conservancy, Kennebunk, Maine, USA, August 2023 — There were several Calico Pennant mating wheels at Day Brook Pond on the Kennebunk Plains this week. This one posed against a interesting backdrop. And this is the season when I always try for a shot of a Calico on a Northern Blazing Star bud. Northern Blazing Star is an endangered plant that, along with the Black Racer Snake and the Upland Sandpiper, the Plains are managed for. The flowers are too broad for them to perch on but the buds are likely perches, especially the shorter plants just back from the shore of the pond. OM Systems OM-1 with 100-400mm zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom bird modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro. ISO 200 @ f6.3 @ 1/640th.

Eastern Amberwing

Eastern Amberwing Dragonfly: Roger’s Pond Park, Kennebunk, Maine, USA, July 2023 — One of the smallest of the true dragonflies, the Eastern Amberwing is not much bigger than a large bee. I was a long time seeing my first one in Maine, but there have been a few at Roger’s Pond this time of year for the past several years. There were three males at one end of the pond and at least one more at the other. I can only assume there were females somewhere, but I did not see them. OM Systems OM-1 with 100-400mm zoom @ 1600mm equivalent (2x digital converter). Program mode with my custom bird modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro. ISO 250 @ f5.3 @ 1/640th.

Maine! — Halloween Pennant

Halloween Pennant: Forever For All Preserve, Kennebunk Land Trust, Kennebunk, Maine, USA — The newish Forever For All Preserve has turned out to be a very good spot for dragonflies and damselflies over the past few years, beginning in the overgrown meadow next to road and all the way down the hill to the stretch of meadow along the Mousam River. The Holloween Pennant’s coloring and the exceptionally wide wings, its relatively large size, and its habit of “posing” on the tip of an exposed stalk, all make it a stand-out dragonfly. OM Systems OM-1 with 100-400mm zoom at 800mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Pro. ISO 200 @ f6.3 @ 1/800th.

Maine! Arrowhead Spiketail

Arrowhead Spiketail: Forever Wild Preserve, Kennebunk, Maine, USA, June 2023 — This gorgeous creature is the Arrowhead Spiketail. It may be 5 years between emergences, and, indeed, I have only ever seen one other here in Southern Maine…yet its population is “stable.” It was very cooperative, returning to the same perch time after time until I had “enough” photos of it. OM Systems OM-1 with 100-400mm zoom. One at 800mm equivalent. Two at 1600mm (with 2x digital extender). Three at 614mm equivalent. Program mode with my evolving bird modifications (works well for dragonflies as well). Processed in Pixelmator Pro. The first shot is at ISO 2500 @ f22 (for greatest depth of field to get both the head and tail in focus) @ 1/640th. Second is ISO 200 @ f6.3 @ 1/540th and third is ISO 200 @ f9 @ 1/6400th (again for depth of field).

Eastern Pondhawk

Eastern Pondhawk: SMMC Kennebunk, Kennebunk, Maine, USA, June 2022 — I have been watching out for these. The Eastern Pondhawk is one of my favorite dragonflies. I like the subtle shades of blue and green, blending into each other, and I like the fact that it sits on sunny rocks for its portrait. 🙂 This is a male. The females remain mostly all green with brown stripes on the abdomen while the males develop this prunosity that renders the abdomen increasingly blue. They are active, agile hunters, but they like to sit and sun themselves as well. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/500th.

Skimmers

It was a day for Skimmers, or perhaps the season for Skimmers has come, at the drainage ponds at Southern Maine Medical Center in Kennebunk, Maine the other day. Four-spotted, Widow, and Twelve-spotted were all active. Multiple 4 and 12-spots, but only the single 4-spot. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos, and assembled in FrameMagic. ISO 100-200 @ f4 @ 1/500th.

First of the season: Calico Pennant

Calico Pennant Dragonfly: Kennebunk Plains Preserve, Kennebunk, Maine, USA, June 2022 — Calico Pennants are not rare dragonflies in southern Maine. They are pretty common in fact, and they are with us pretty much all summer, but I am always happy to see the first emerging in early June…maybe a bit late this year. I found a few yesterday along the pond edge on the Kennebunk Plains. Their habit of perching on the very tip of vegetation, generally between 6 inches and a foot off the ground, where they swing in the wind like a flag, makes them excellent photographic subjects. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/640th.

Green Darner

Green Darner Dragonfly: SMMC drainage ponds, Kennebunk, Maine, USA, June 2022 — Dragonfly activity at the drainage ponds at Southern Maine Medical Center has been low this month until yesterday, when suddenly the air above the ponds is alive with dragons of several different species. Green Darners, the largest of the North American dragonflies, have been back in the area at least since early May, in small numbers, around most ponds. During daylight, Darners are pretty much in constant flight…and they are fast!…so they are particularly difficult to photograph, unless they are mating or ovipositing as they are here. The female is injecting an egg into the waterlogged reed stem below waterline. It will go through up to 13 different morphs, getting larger each time, until it crawls out of the water to emerge as a flying dragon. Since these are mating in June already, they are most likely migrant darners. The nymphs will finish their cycle and emerge in late August or September and head south…where they will mate during the winter, and the next generation will move back north in early spring. The Green Darners we see mating here in southern Maine in July and August are resident darners. They will remain in nymph form for a full year, to emerge in July or August next year. Odd, yes, but it seems to work for the darners. Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed in Pixelmator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 160 @ f4 @ 1/500th. Minus .3EV exposure compensation.

Frosted Whiteface

Frosted Whiteface: Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Plains Conservancy, Kennebunk, Maine, USA, June 2022 — Besides the Damsels from yesterday, a few early Dragons were out at Day Brook Pond. Lancet Clubtails of course, which seem to be the earliest Odo to emerge in Southern Maine (I saw my first the 3rd week in May), but they are now joined by both Chalk-fronted Corporals and Frosted Whitefaces (pictured here in both rear and front view). I even found a just emerged teneral Skimmer…probably a Slaty Skimmer but it was too early to tell for sure. The Frosted Whiteface is so tiny, it makes the Corporals look big! Sony Rx10iv at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my custom birds and wildlife modifications. Processed (and enlarged) in Pixomator Photo and Apple Photos. ISO 100 @ f4 @ 1/640th and 1/500th.