Posts in Category: dragonflies
Black Saddlebags, Kennebunk Bridle Path
I mentioned in yesterday’s post, that I had been seriously distracted from the Monarch migration along the Kennebunk Bridle Path on Sunday by a trio of Black Saddlebags hunting just where the trail opens out to the marsh from the tunnel of trees next to Rt 9. The trail is narrow there, running between dense shoulder high hedges of mostly Beach Rose (with some stunted saplings and a lot of wild aster and Goldenrod mixed in this season).
We had a lot of Black Saddlebags emerge at the pond I frequent for dragons and damsels this summer. There were generally at least 2 flying on any given day, and often half a dozen. I was more than a little frustrated with them as they stay in the air for hours (sometimes it seems like days) at a time, never perching for a photo. I did eventually find a teneral (newly emerged from its last larva stage) and track it in its first weak flight to the perch were it hoped to dry, and got a few shots, mostly obscured by the reeds around it. But I still wanted a good shot of a Black Saddlebags. I mean…so many…so close!…and no photo??? That can’t be.
I am discovering, however, that Saddlebag behavior is quite different in the fall than it is in the summer…or maybe it is different among migrant Saddlebags and resident Saddlebags. The Saddlebags I am seeing these days spend at least part of their day perched, mostly low in rough vegetation, where they can find a bare vertical twig to latch onto, and as someone in the Northeast Odonata Group on Facebook told me already, they tend to return to the same perch (or one close by) after each hunting flight. I remembered this after startling a Saddlebags into the air at exactly the same spot on the trail for the third time. 🙂
So I sent about 90 minutes figuring out which twigs they were using, and waiting for one to return. Eventually one did…and landed dead head on to me. The best I could do was a face shot, and even then, partially obscured by the grasses between.
The afternoon was wearing on, as they say, and I was getting tired of walking and standing along the same little stretch of trail, so I decided to cross Rt 9 and take my scooter up to the marsh pools on the other side. There is a stretch of Beach Rose and taller saplings forming a hedge on either side of the trail just beyond the pools where I found so many dragons early this summer, and I had, in early July, seen and photographed a Saddlebags well above my head in a tree there. Certainly it was worth a try.
I was really, really thankful to find a Black Saddlebags right were I went to look. This one, as you see from the first photo, was perched side on to me, just below eyelevel, in on a dry flower head near the top of the Beach Rose hedge. It was deep enough in the hedge so I could not get around behind it…but I am more than satisfied with this view. And, it sat there as long as I could want. I left it on its perch when I finally decided it was time to get on my scooter and go home.
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. 840mm –1680mm equivalents. f5.8 @ 1/250th – 1/320th @ ISO 200. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
So I have, I think, my Black Saddlebags pics for this year. Not that I will stop looking, of course, but if don’t get another, these are enough to satisfy me. 🙂
Christmas in September, take 2. Meadowhawks
Last Monday I posted an image of a Green Darner Dragonfly mating wheel in a Blue Spruce tree, under the Christmas in September heading. This is even more Christmassy. It is a mating pair of either White-faced, Cherry-faced, or Ruby Meadowhawks. These three, with bright red males, are all here right now and all so similar that I can not tell from the photo, and I did not see the pair from any other angle. You need to see the face, and even then, it is a chancy thing. We also have the Autumn Meadowhawk right now, in great abundance, which is another one easily confused with this trio, but the Autumn would show lighter colored legs. Close as I can get.
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. 1240mm equivalent field of view. f5.8 @ 1/200th @ ISO 400. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
And for the Sunday thought: I am rapidly coming to the end of dragonfly season. The last Odonata fly in Maine in October. Already the pond, which was alive with dragons and damsels a few weeks ago, is very quiet. You have mating Meadowhawks and Bluets in some numbers, a few Common Darners still flying on warm afternoons, and a solitary Black Saddlebags. There is only one pair of Pondhawks still there, and all the Blue Dashers are gone. I expect one day soon to find the pond and the air above it empty, at least of Odonata.
And, since dragon and damselfly hunting has been such a big part of my summer, both personally and photographically, I am faced with more than the usual fall “what next?” Oh, I know, we will have foliage in a few weeks, and just yesterday my daughter was remarking that the “September skies” are back. By the end of September my travel schedule kicks in, with trips to Oregon, New Jersey, Texas, and New Mexico before Thanksgiving. So I will be busy, and there will be lots to photograph. (And dragon and damselflies still flying in the southern reaches of the journey!)
Still, today, I am caught with that “seasons passing too quickly” feeling. My soul is singing “Where have all the dragons and damsels of summer gone?” The wheel of time is threatening to run me over.
And I was thinking about time and eternity in another context this week, thinking that too often we think of eternity as an “unimaginable and unending stretch of time” when in fact, eternity is the absence of time altogether. Time and eternity are two alternate views of reality, and they exist side by side, or, better, intertwined…not as we picture them, one after the other, sequentially. Especially NOT “time while we live, and eternity after we die.” And every religion worth the name has offered some way out…some way to transform the temporal view to the eternal. The temporal is, well, temporary at best, and often seen as illusion. Only the eternal is divine. Every religion values eternity and devalues time.
Strange that.
Because, of course, rightly seen, time is just the way we humans experience eternity. We see the passing seasons, and we know, especially as we age, that we have a limited number of them. We see people born and we see people die. Here and not here. And because of that we begin to count the moments…to see each moment as one more or one less, rather than as the moving point, the living point, where we touch eternity…the moving point, the living point, where eternity touches the world of matter in each of us. The only true way out is to learn to see the eternal in every moment, to be the eternal in every moment…to live in time as though there were no time.
Now don’t think I am devaluing time here again. What I mean is that we should each bring the full rich living experience of eternity to bear on every passing moment, so that every moment becomes as valuable to us as all eternity. I mean that we, each of us, should become the moving, the living, point were the eternal divine touches the world.
Seasons come and seasons go. The dragons and damsels of this year are almost gone. And the question is not really “what’s next?” It is always “what’s now?”…an eternity of what’s now…a now that is eternal.
And in saying it, I can almost grasp it. I can almost see it, taste it, feel it. It is almost my reality. And maybe that is as close as we can get…the rest…in this as in everything…must be faith.
A moment filled with meadowhawks in a Blue Spruce tree is, by faith, eternal.
Christmas in September: Common Green Darner
I was chasing one of the mosaic darners round and round the little pond where I do a lot of dragon and damselfly hunting, without success as the critter would not settle long enough for me to get on it with the camera, when this pair of Common Green Darners popped up to the ornamental Blue Spruce right in front of me, and right at eye-level. The late September afternoon sun was almost horizontal, picking out every detail and bringing out all the color of the pair. The tree was also right on the close edge of a little bay in the pond, which, though it limited my angle of approach, also put the background, across the bay, well out of focus. Perfect. These are such big dragons that I could easily fill the frame at 840mm equivalent, full optical zoom, without resorting to the digital tel-converter. Even better!
It was one of the members of the Northeastern Odonata group who saw the Christmas ornament connection when I posted it over there. So. Christmas in September. And that is appropriated in more ways than one, as a perched pair of Common Green Darners at eye-level in good light has to be considered a gift by any dragon fancier!
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. 840mm equivalent field of view. f5.8 @ 1/500th @ ISO 160. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Canada Darner, Old Falls Pond, W. Kennebunk ME
The other day I detailed the Black-shouldered Spinylegs I found when I went to Old Falls Pond on the Mousam River looking for American Ruby-spots. The BsSl was not the only interesting Dragonfly I found. This Canada Darner, one of the large Mosaic Darners, was hung up on a small tree on my second visit to the marsh where the trail down from the road meets the pond. As it happens, this is my second encounter with a Canada. The first was a female depositing eggs at Factory Pasture Pond in mid July.
These are big, bright Dragons…the kind that can make Odonata watchers of almost anyone.
The side shot here is for identification purposes. The Mosaic Darners can be, mostly, identified on the basis of the stripes along the side of a thorax.
And this is pretty much ideal Canada Darner habitat. Old Falls Pond.
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. 1240mm equivalent field of view for the Dragons…840mm optical plus 1.5x digital tel-converter (except the female at 1680mm). The pond at 24mm. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.
Black-shouldered Spinylegs at Old Falls Pond: Happy Sunday!
With my new interest in Odonata (dragon and damselflies), I am beginning to look at the landscape of Southern Maine in a different way. I know where most of the good “classic” photo ops are, and I know, pretty much, where to go for most of the birds that either live here or pass through. But I am only learning where to go for dragons and damsels.
This is the season when the American Red-spot flies…and I really want to see one. American Ruby-spot is a close relative of the Ebony Jewelwing, a broad-winged damselfly, which I featured recently, but it has clear wings with bright “ruby” spots close in to the body.
Unfortunately it is not listed on Odonata Central as occurring in York county, nor is it featured in range maps covering the county in the USGS data base of Odonata, and notes I have read elsewhere place American Ruby-spot in Maine but not on the coastal plain. I live on the coastal plain. Still, there are places in York county that have the kind of “clean” swift running rivers with lots of exposed rocks that the American Ruby-spot likes. (I am confident of all of the above but the “clean” part.) So it is worth looking.
The nearest likely spot is about 10 miles inland, on a little stretch of the Mousam between Estes Lake and Old Falls Pond. The Mousam tumbles down over rock ledges and through boulders for a quarter mile or so, all in a rush. It is one of my favorite places for fall foliage, with the overhanging maples and the white water of the falls and rapids.
But now, with my new Odonata eyes, I have to look at it as possible American Ruby-spot habitat as well! Like I say, a whole new layer to the landscape.
Unfortunately the American Ruby-spot does not seem to see this little stretch of the Mousam the same way I do. There were none.
Not that it was not a worthwhile trip. The view and the music of the falling waters would be enough, but I found Palm Warblers, a tiny Northern Leopard Frog, an even smaller Toad, and several new or seldom seen dragons and damsels. The lead image is, as you might have guessed from the title, a Black-shouldered Spinylegs. It is a member of a large family of dragons (Gomphidae) which all have more or less broad tips on their abdomens (tails)…clubtails, snaketails, spinylegs, etc. The Black-shouldered Spinyleg favors waters very similar to the American Ruby-spot, though it will tolerate slower moving “muddy” streams, and oxygen-rich ponds and lakes, where you would not find the damsel.
The full body shot shows off the broad tail.
I had a job identifying this dragon…made more difficult by the fact that Odonata Central does not list Black-shouldered Spinyleg for York County, Maine either, nor does the USGS data base. In fact I posted pics to the North-east Odonata Facebook group just to me sure of my id.
In researching for this piece this morning, however, I visited the Maine Dragon and Damselfly Survey site. Maine is one of only a few states to have such a comprehensive, scholarly survey of Odonata, conducted over several years by the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. I have not used the site much, since it makes few (as in no) concessions to the amateur dragon and damselfly fancier. It uses only Scientific names, and cryptic codes for distribution. Still, with a bit of Googling Latin names and a bit of common sense on the codes, I found that the Black-shouldered Spinyleg is indeed recorded for York County Maine. It was not seen in the first round survey in the late 90s…but it was added a more recent 2006 follow-up. So there!
And for the Sunday thought: My own knowledge of dragon and damselflies is miniscule. I am humbled by every encounter with the folks who really know…which is most of the regular posters on the North-east Odonata Facebook group, the authors of the guides I use, and those who maintain the web-sites…to name a few. But I have to consider that even the experts admit to knowing very little, comparatively, about Odonata…compared, of course, to what there is to know…compared to what we have yet to learn. Odonata from an interesting, highly visible and certainly vital layer in the life-scape, and yet even the authorities are not sure if something as striking and identifiable as Black-shouldered Spinyleg lives in York County Maine (or at least not in agreement).
I love learning new stuff. I love discovering new bugs and new birds and new frogs and new ways of seeing the landscape in which I live. It makes me feel more alive to have found a Black-shouldered Spinyleg along the Mousam between Estes Lake and Old Falls Pond. And everything I learn brings me closer to the Creator of All Things. The love of learning, the love of discovery, is a vital aspect of the love the God. When we stop learning, when we stop discovering, then love is dead. This is a true of the love between people as it is of our love of creation. We have one eye…it is either open or closed. If I am not discovering a new way to look at the landscape around me, then it is likely I am not discovering new things to love about the people around me. That is death.
And that, this morning, hits me right in the face! That challenges me. That makes me wonder what I don’t know about the people around me…it makes me wonder if I am not seeing the Black-shouldered Spinylegs of their souls…of their spiritual landscapes?
One thing gives me hope. That same Maine Dragon and Damselfly Survey that lists the Black-shouldered Spinyleg for York County Maine, also lists the American Ruby-spot! That is enough to keep me checking likely spots in the landscape.
And this morning’s Sunday thought, is, I hope, a timely reminder to check the spiritual landscape of those around me to see what I am missing that I might love (and better love). That is what it means to be alive. And that is what it takes to keep love alive.
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.
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.
Quest Pond, Pondhawks, and other wonders for Sunday!
As I mentioned yesterday, my mother-in-law introduced me to a new little pond this week. It is your standard industrial drainage pond, part of the drainage system for a small industrial park, augmented by the fact that the whole facility was built on a pad of fill in more or less wetland and the water has to go somewhere. It is the last in a series of ponds and French drains on the property and it is remarkably healthy for a drainage pond.
The thin boarder of reeds and other water plants along the edge, the grassy verge, the exposed rocks and the gravel path around the pond, and the backing of trees and shrubs, make it ideal Odonata habitat, with easy access for photography as well…and indeed it is alive with dragon and damselflies. The number of species is impressive, but the number of individuals, for Southern Maine, is even more impressive. In several visits over the past two days I have seen:
Green Darner (15-20 at all times over pond and the grassy verge)
Eastern Pondhawk (both male and female in large numbers, 30 or more of each)
Twelve-spotted Skimmer (about the same numbers as Green Darners)
Widow Skimmer (many males and one female so far)
Common Whitetail (males only, and only two that I have seen)
Black Saddlebags (5-10, but very aggressive, and very present)
Blue Dasher (30 or more, and a few so small I am trying to make them into Elfin Dasher or Blue Dragonlets)
Eastern Amberwing (half a dozen)
A single female White-faced Meadowhawk
And one spectacular, and very red, Calico Pennant.
Then you have the damsels:
Azure Bluet for sure.
Familiar Bluet
Orange Bluet (I think)
Eastern Forktail
Slender Spreadwing
And bunches of sprites down on the floating vegetation that I have not begun to sort.
It is an Odonata lover’s feast! This is not a big pond…so watching this man dragonfies over the water at any given time is like watching a soccer match with no goals and no rules. When I close my eyes to sleep at night, my inner vision is full of darting shapes against the light.
I was especially delighted to find a newly emerged Green Darner on Friday. You never get a chance to photograph a Green Darner…oh, maybe a female hung up waiting on a mate, or a mating wheel…both of those I have from California…but not an individual Green unless they are newly emerged and not yet ready for flight.
And the Eastern Pondwalks are rapidly becoming one of may favorite dragonflies. Both male and female are striking in their own ways. The male in the lead image shows off the green face and the subtle blue pruinescence (powdery frost) covering the green body, while the female, without the pruinescence. is exactly the same shade of green as my electric scooter.
This pond is also the first place I have seen Dragonfly cases…the shells left when Dragonflies emerge from the last larva stage. The Green Darners climb high up on reeds or bushes for the transformation, and the shells remain attached to the reed by those strong legs until a sufficiently powerful wind knocks them loose. When I first saw them, I could not imagine what in the world kind of bug they were! With the low sun of late afternoon behind them they have a bizarre (maybe a bit creepy even) beauty of their own.
You will be seeing lots more of the Odonata wonders of Quest Pond over the coming days, I am sure.
And for the Sunday thought. If someone had told me a year ago that the highlight of my 2012 summer would be the discovery of new drainage pond at an industrial estate…
Well, actually I might not have found it that hard to believe given my past experience and what I know about myself, but it does sound unlikely on the face of it.
And, of course, except for the dragonflies and damselflies I would probably not have given Quest Pond a second look. just another drainage pond. And think of what I would have missed!
That is the thing about being awake in the world. Here I am at almost 65 years old (August 14th) and still learning…still finding new stuff to feed the wonder and the delight of being alive. Me and my Pondhawk green electric scooter pulling up to the pond on a sunny afternoon, with my white beard and with my camera on my hip and my Tilly hat hung down my back behind my emerald green helmet…must be quite a sight. But that’s okay. I am having fun.
And it is not like I am finding anything new…all these bugs have been seen and even photographed…by people who know a lot more about them than I do…people who have devoted, or are devoting, their working lives to getting to know everything there is to know about Odonata. I depend on them for what little I know. But, the fact is, this is all new for me…I have never seen and never photographed these bugs…this peculiar beauty…so it fills me with the delight of discovery.
And I think that is the key to being awake. I think our spirits require a constant diet of discovery…I think we are driven to keep exploring this world, these creatures that share it, ourselves, those we know and those we love…to find the newness in it all…the new every day…to find the beauty. I think we are driven, I know I am driven, to share it in these words and photographs. It is my spiritual act. It is the action of my spirit, to bring Quest Pond and Pondhawks and empty dragonfly cases to your attention this morning, confident that those who are in touch with the same spirit, the loving spirit of creation, the spirit of all that is new and all that we can discover…will find the delight in them…will see the beauty…will experience the love. Happy Sunday!
Spot-winged Glider
The Gliders have the widest distribution of any family of Dragonflies. The Wandering Glider, a close relative of this Spot-winged, has the widest range, world-wide, of any dragonfly. It populates the latitudes between 40 south and 40 north (with the exception of most of Europe for some reason), and wanders over the boarder in both directions, repopulating areas every summer where it is too cold for it to winter.
As I say, this one is not a Wandering Glider, but a Spot-winged Glider, the only other member of the Genius Pantala (Rain-pool gliders). The Spot-winged appears have much same range as the Wandering, but is limited to the Americas. I found this one near the rain-pools along the Kennebunk Bridle Path. Fancy that!
The second shot shows the “spots” on the hind-wing that give it its name. They are more developed on some specimens. This shot also shows the other things that really caught my eye…the very bright, and seemingly very large, rust-red eyes…and the way the head is articulated on a very thin, and relatively long, proto-thorax (neck). It makes the head look hollow, with the eyes wrapping so far back. Of course it may be emphasized by the angle of the shot, but it was also very obvious in the field…very odd looking.
In the third shot, notice slightly upturned abdomen (tail) which is characteristic of perched Gliders.
And one more close up, just for fun.
Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation. 1680mm, 1240mm and 840mm equivalent fields of view. f5.8 @ 1/500th to 1/640th @ mostly ISO 160.
Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.