Posts in Category: dragonflies
Baskettail?
Baskettail Dragonfly, Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, W. Kennebunk ME
The dragonflies are coming out these past few days. At Day Brook Pond there are many tenerals…newly emerged dragonflies…and a few fully hardened off adults. This is, I believe, one of the Baskettails…probably the Common Baskettail. You hardly ever see the adults perched, and I am not familiar enough with the tenerals to be sure.
Sony RX10iii at 600mm plus 2x Clear Image Zoom. 1/500th @ ISO 100 @ f4. Processed in Lightroom.
Variegated Meadowhawk
We are Albuquerque New Mexico on a somewhat lieserly trip to the Festival of the Cranes at Bosque del Apache NWR this morning, but this is from our last festival in South Texas.
The Veriegated Meadowhawk is one of the showier dragonflies. This specimen, from the National Butterfly Center in Mission, Texas is a particularly bright one.
Nikon P610 at 2300mm equivalent field of view (using some digital Perfect Image Zoom) from about 7 feet. 1/250 @ ISO 220 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
King of the Hill: Dragonfly Style
Roseate Skimmer and Blue Dasher, Estero Llano Grande State Park and World Birding Center, Weslaco TX
I was already focused on the Roseate Skimmer assuming obelisk position (attempting to cool itself in the hot Texas sun), when the Blue Dasher flew in and tried to knock the skimmer off its perch. It made repeated attempts, and, at one point, actually latched on to the skimmers leg. It was over before I could remember to hit the video record button, but I got two shots of the action. The skimmer held on to the perch…and the Blue Dasher settled for a similar perch a few inches away. I have a second shot of them both obelisking.
Nikon P610 at 1440mm equivalent field of view. 1/250th @ ISO 220 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom. The second shot is more complicated. Since the two bugs were not in the same plane of focus, I could only get one in focus at a time, even zoomed out to 700mm equivalent with both dragons in the frame. I took two rapid shots, one with the Roseate Skimmer in focus, and one with the Blue Dasher, and then combined the two images in Photoshop so that both dragons are in focus. Final processing was in Lightroom.
Roseate Skimmer and Blue Dasher
Close in with a Saffron-winged Meadowhawk
Saffron-winged Meadowhawk. Fernald Brook Pond, Kennebunk ME
In the cooler weather of fall the Meadowhawks are spending more time in sitting in the sun during the day…soaking up heat. They are more approachable this time of year. This shot was taken at 48mm equivalent field of view from about 6 inches. And even then the bug did not fly. It was still there when I left. It is a Saffron-winged Meadowhawk, a species I had never seen in Maine (or anywhere else) until this summer…and this summer they are everywhere I go. It was, in fact, one of two dragonflies I photographed in a few days in the thumb of Michigan. Everywhere!
Sony HX90V. 1/320th @ ISO 80 @ f4.5. Processed and cropped slightly for scale in Lightroom.
Green Darner up close
Green Darner Dragonfly, Grange Insurance Audubon Center, Columbus OH
By the time I got out for a walk at the American Birding Expo at Grange Insurance Audubon Center in Columbus Ohio things were quiet on the bird front…but there certainly were a lot of bugs. I saw at least 7 species of butterflies, and four species of dragons. This Green Darner, the largest Dragonfly in North America, was perching along the grassy wetlands trail below the Center. Due to the focus limitations of the Nikon P900, I had to back up quite a ways to get this shot…taken full frame using the Perfect Image Zoom function at a 3600mm equivalent field of view. Handheld!
It certainly shows off the amazingly intricate structure of the dragonfly.
Nikon P900 at 3600mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 250 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
Rare (for me) Meadowhawks
Saffron-winged Meadowhawk, Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area
Band-winged Meadowhawk, Kennebunk Bridle Path, Kennebunk ME
It might be my imagination, but it seems to me that the Sympetrum dragons are late emerging this year. Suddenly there at tiny red Meadowhawks everywhere…most of which look to me to be Cherry-faced. And, despite its being after the 1st of September, I have yet to see any number of Autumn. I did find, on opposite sides of Kennebunk, two Meadowhawks that I see much more rarely. At Day Brook Pond on the Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, most of the Meadowhawks in flight were Saffron Winged, which is only my second sighting in Maine. And, within a few days I found Band-winged Meadowhawks along the Kennebunk Bridle Path by the lower Mousam River, again, only my second sighting of this dragon in Maine. Each is an interesting variation on the Sympetrum theme 🙂
Sony HX90V at 1440mm equivalent (using 2x Clear Image Zoom). Both shots 1/250 @ ISO 160 @ f6.4. Processed in Lightroom.
Canada (NOT! actually a Lance-tipped) Darner
Lance-tipped Darner, Emmon Preserve, Kennebunkport ME
For some reason, the meadows behind and above the Kennebunkport Land Conservancy buildings at Emmons Preserve are one the best places for darners in my patch of Southern Maine. I have seen at least 5 species there, though what species is dominant varies from year to year. Last year they were all Black-tipped. Some years Green-stripped. This year, mostly Canada. (since this is actually a Lance-tipped Darner, I am not so sure now 🙂 I have also seen the occasional Shadow there and Springtime. Green-stripped and Canada are hard to distinguish, and I am only mostly sure this is a Canada. I am willing to be corrected by those who know better. 🙂 There were many more darners in flight during my visit, including at least one smaller, darker darner, but this Lance-tipped is the only one I caught perching.
Sony HX90V at 720mm equivalent field of view. 1/250th @ ISO 160 @ f6.3. Processed and cropped for composition in Lightroom.
Apple Eyes!
Blue Dasher, Emmons Preserve, Kennebunkport, ME
Yesterday, early, I went out to Emmons Preserve (Kennebunkport Land Conservancy) to look for dragonflies. I hoped to get them while they were still cold from the night and not as active as they would be later in the day. It was a moderately successful trip…there were a number of dragons in flight, and I found one Green-stripped Darner perched, as well as a Twelve-Spotted Skimmer and this cooperative Blue Dasher. The light was just right to bring out the amazing apple green of the eyes, which contrasts nicely with the dull blue of the abdomen. The Blue Dasher is one of the most common dragonflies in southern Maine, so as a record shot it is not very interesting…but as image, I think it is very satisfying.
Sony HX90V at about 1400mm equivalent field of view (720 optical plus 2x digital Clear Image Zoom). 1/250th @ ISO 125 @ f6.4. Processed in Lightroom.
Late Calico Pennant
Calico Pennant, Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, ME
By this late in the summer, most of the Calico Pennants you see are well worn, with tattered wings, and somewhat brittle looking abdomens. This specimen, from the shores of Day Brook Pond on the Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, seems relatively fresh. Either it managed to survive without visible signs of the day to day battle, or it emerged late.
Sony HX90V at around 1200mm equivalent field of view (with some digital Clear Image zoom). 1/250th @ ISO 250 @ f6.4. Processed and cropped for composition in Lightroom.
Roseate Skimmer. Happy Sunday (again)
Roseate Skimmer, Sweetwater Wetlands, Tucson AZ
Those of you were paying attention might have noticed that yesterday I was suffering under day-of-the-week confusion. My daughter Sarah and I are working the Tucson Birding Festival, and we have been up and out early to do workshops or just to get some birding and photography in while it is still only in the upper 80s, and for some reason I woke up yesterday convinced it was Sunday already. It was only after I had written and posted The Generous Eye post for the week, which is my Sunday morning routine, that I was divested of that illusion. Saturday! Oh well, too late now.
Therefore this is the rare week when I post two The Generous Eye posts. What a blessing! For you. And for me!
This is one of my favorite dragonflies, though I only see it when traveling to Texas, New Mexico, or Arizona…states within its range. We do not have them in New England. The color is just so unlikely in nature…so intense…so pink! I had seen them on, what turns out to have been Friday, while doing a workshop at Sweetwater Wetlands in Tucson, but they would not perch for a photo. On, what turns out to have been Saturday, we found two different specimens perched nicely. One was a tattered individual, with frayed wings, but the other was this relatively new dragon. Even it has a little wing tare…life at Sweetwater, with a host of predatory dragonflies competing within a relatively small area, must be rough.
The Roseate always makes me smile. There is, for me, a deep satisfying joy in seeing one, and especially in photographing one. What an outrageous bug! How extravagant…how unneedfully generous…of the creator to have lovingly intentioned such a creature in our world. I have to admire such extravagance. I have to love such a creator. And sharing an image of the dragonfly that might cause you to experience even a echo of that tangle of feelings is just plain fun! Happy Sunday.