Posts in Category: dragonflies
Halloween Pennant
Halloween Pennant, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, Maine
On my photoprowl to the Kennebunk Plains late yesterday afternoon, I was surprised to find a few Northern Blazing Star in bloom. This is going to be a year with a lot of Blazing Star, and I am expecting a bold display, but not for several more weeks…well into August. Still I was happy to see them in bloom, as often I am traveling when the Blazing Star is a its peak. Maybe early this year 🙂
I also found at least two, probably teneral, Halloween Pennants among the Blazing Star. Again, this is a Dragonfly that I have seen on the Plains when the Blazing Star is in bloom, in August. These might be early, and they were almost certainly newly emerged, as the wings were quite light in color. The one on the right is on a Blazing Star bud, far from open.
Sony HX90V at 720-1000mm equivalent field of view. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage.
Ebony Jewelwing again
Ebony Jewelwing. Batson River, Emmons Preserve, Kennebunkport ME
There were a few Ebony Jewelwings, all males, a week ago along the Batson River at Emmons Preserve (Kennebunkport Land Conservancy), but yesterday there were both males and females and they were thicker than the mosquitoes. 🙂 Of course, due to the mosquitoes it was hard to stand still long enough to photography them…but I came back with a number of keepers. This bold male perched repeatedly only a few feet from me.
Sony HX90V at 720mm equivalent field of view…with some Clear Image Zoom applied to bring it up to about 1000mm equivalent. 1/250th @ ISO 500 @ f6.4. Processed and cropped slightly in Lightroom.
Green-eyed Monster
Racket-tailed Emerald. Kennebunk Bridle Path, Kennebunk ME
Yes, well, green-eyed for sure. This is a Racket-tailed Emerald. There is at least one pair that inhabit a small pool beside the Kennebunk Bridle Path. They must successfully sow eggs in the pool every year, since I see them just like clockwork, emerged as adults, and busy about the business of dragonflies. They don’t perch a lot, and when they do, they favor out of the way nooks among leaves, so they are not easy to photograph. I was happy to get these.
Nikon P900 at 700mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 200 @ f5.6. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage.
The Big Easy: 12 Spotted Skimmer
12 Spotted Skimmer, Kennebunk Bridle Path, Kennebunk ME
The Twelve Spotted Skimmer was the first Dragonfly I ever photographed. Not this one. My first shot was at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in July of 2012, and it kicked of an interest that has persisted and grown over these past 3 years. Appropriately, the Twelve Spotted Skimmer is one of the easiest dragonflies to photograph. It is big and showy…and it perches often…returning regularly to the same perch. A bit of patience, and a suitably long lens (or even a great deal of patience and shorter lens) is all that is needed. My lenses have grown in length over the past 3 years, even if my patience has not. 🙂
Nikon P900 at 700mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 125 @ f5.6. Processed in Lightroom.
For interest here is an even closer shot with the Sony HX90V using some enhanced digital zoom.
12 Spotted Skimmer. Sony HX90V.
Calico Pennant
Calico Pennant. Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, ME
I always look forward to the first Calico Pennant of the season. I found some teneral (newly emerged) Calicos at Day Brook Pond a week ago, but did not find any adults until yesterday. There were hundreds around the pond…males outnumbering females about 6 to one…but then the females had probably already dispersed for the day to feeding grounds further from the water. I did find a mating wheel. Calicos are relatively easy to photograph as they settle out frequently on perches that are predictable, once you know what to look for…and sometimes sit sunning themselves for 60 seconds at a time.
This shot is a tele-macro shot, taken handheld at 4000mm equivalent using Digital Fine Zoom on the Nikon P900. I had to back off to the minimum focus distance of 16.5 feet to get the bug in focus. 1/500th @ ISO 140 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
Chalk-fronted Corporal
Chalk-fronted Corporal, Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, ME
I have never seen as many Chalk-fronted Corporals as I have this year. They are currently our most abundant dragonfly by a factor of ten. Of course it helps that they are fair sized and whitish so they show up well in almost any habitat, and their habit of perching for moments at a time makes them easy to photograph. This specimen perched on this interesting fungal formation long enough for a portrait.
Nikon P900 at 550mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ ISO 100 @ f5.6. Processed in Lightroom.
Tenerals at Day Brook Pond. Happy Sunday!
Teneral Dragonflies. Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area.
Day Brook Pond is rapidly becoming my favorite local place to visit. It is not far…less than 5 miles…and it is beautiful both in itself, as landscape, and in the wide variety of wildlife possible there. Right now, the dragon and damsel flies are emerging in great numbers…the most I have ever seen in Southern Maine…and every trip is a study in tenerals. “Teneral” is the technical term among Odonatist for the newly emerged dragons and damsels in their adult (flying) form. Odonata have one of the more complex lifecycles…going through many sub-adult aquatic forms, before emerging for flight, mating, and egg-laying. This panel shows, clockwise from the upper left, and as near as I can tell: Calico Pennant (likely a female), Mantled Baskettail (the only one I have ever seen perched), Slaty Skimmer, and a likely Lancet Clubtail, all on their maiden flights. There were full adults of all of these species present over the pond and along the edges, but they were not posing for pics yesterday 🙂
Nikon P900. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage.
Day Brook Pond. Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area
The abundance and variety of tenerals at Day Brook Pond continues to amaze me. I will go back this afternoon to see what else I can find, and perhaps to catch some of the adults perching. The Pond is embedded in a large parcel (almost 2000 acres) of State, Nature Conservancy, and Kennebunk Land Trust holdings that make up the Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area (home to the endangered Black Racer Snake and, come August, the largest stand of the endangered Northern Blazing Star flower in the world). It appears to be an exceptionally healthy pond. It is also undeniably beautiful in its quiet way. It is a place that makes me feel privileged to be alive, privileged to be able to enjoy such a place, such a season with emerging odonata, wildflowers, birds, and the tall skies of early summer. Blessed. Simply blessed. It is good to be alive. It is better to know it is good. Thank you God. Happy Sunday!
Painted Skimmer
Painted Skimmer, Kennebunk Bridle Path, Kennebunk ME
Painted Skimmer is another early dragonfly in Southern Maine. I glimpsed my first a week ago, but this is the first one that has posed for me, and I found it in, what seemed to me, a very unlikely place…deep in the forest along the Kennebunk Bridle Path. There were some pools, full of moss and ferns and violets, and totally overshadowed by pines and maples, along the path through the forest…but I think of the skimmers as open country, open marsh dragons. Live and learn. This one certainly could not have been better positioned for photography. I saw it in flight, but when it landed in a patch of sun off the trail, it sat there for at least a half hour. I photographed it, then walked to the end of the trail where it meets the road to Mother’s Beach, and it was still sitting on its branch when I got back to it. So, of course, I photographed it some more!
Nikon P900 at 650mm equivalent field of view. 1/500th @ f5.6 @ ISO 100. Processed and cropped for scale in Lightroom.
1st Dragons of the season: 4 Spotted Skimmer
4 Spotted Skimmer, Quest Ponds, Kennebunk ME
The 4 Spotted Skimmer is not the most beautiful of dragonflies…in fact it is not beautiful at all to those who are not fascinated with Odonata, and even then it would probably not make anyone’s list of favorite bugs. It’s main claim to fame is that it is one of the first large dragons to fly around our northern ponds and marshes. I was actually very surprised yesterday, on my first intentional Odonata outing of the season, to find how many dragonflies were already flying. I have been traveling a lot this spring, which has limited my access to the ponds and pools, and I assumed the very late spring we are having would have retarded the emergence. There were hundreds of Dot-tailed Whitefaces (without a doubt our most abundant and longest season dragon), a good number of Green Darners (probably migrating back as adults from further south…but already in mating wheels here in Southern Maine), at least one Chalk-fronted Corporal (another early bug), and something that was probably a Painted Skimmer too far and too fast to id for sure. There might have been at least one other large darner way out over the pond, maybe Canada, but it was too far to see. Not bad, and that was only the 3 inland ponds I patrol. Today I will get down to the fresh water pools along the river near the ocean, and check the beach for Green Darners and Black-Saddlebags coming ashore off the water. 🙂
Nikon P900 at 2800mm equivalent field of view. 1/250th @ f6.5 @ ISO 400. Processed in Topaz Denoise and Lightroom.
Red Saddlebags!
Red Saddlebags. Estero Llano Grande
In Maine we get an occasional Carolina Saddlebags…the other red saddlebags…and lots of Black Saddlebags, but I am always delighted to see the true Red Saddlebags Dragonfly when I visit Texas. It took 3 trips to Estero Llano Grande State Park World Birding Center south of Weslaco Texas to catch one perched in good light, but it was worth it. 🙂
Sony HX400V at 2400mm equivalent field of view (1200mm optical plus 2x Clear Image Zoom). Shutter preferred. 1/500th @ ISO 250 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom on my Lenovo Miix 2 Windows tablet.