Posts in Category: butterflies and insects
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.
Viceroy on the Kennebunk Plains
Viceroy Butterfly, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, ME
When I left the house yesterday on my photoprowl, I was thinking of butterflies, wondering if I could find any on the Kennebunk Plains. Often when the Blazing Star is in bloom, there are butterflies nectaring on the blossoms. When I got to the Plains, it did not look likely as the wind was blowing a gale. I did see a few butterflies. This one was sheltering in the lee of a small birch sapling, low to the ground. Photography was difficult because the tree branches were bouncing around in the wind so hard that it shook the butterfly off several times. I, of course, assumed it was a Monarch, until I came to post it, when I thought I had better make sure it was not a Viceroy…and, of course, it appears to indeed be a Viceroy. 🙂 The black intersecting line on the hindwings is the give away.
This is a composite image, assembled from three separate shots in Coolage. Sony HX90V at 720mm equivalent field of view. 1/250th @ ISO 200 @ f6.4. Processed in Lightroom.
Early Northern Blazing Star. Happy Sunday!
Northern Blazing Star with Skipper, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, ME
I have never seen the Kennebunk Plains so thick with Northern Blazing Star. The budded plants are everywhere, in thick stands this year. By the first week in August, the second at the latest, the Plains are going to be purple with Blazing Star. Right now, there are only a few plants here and there in bloom, but the promise is there, and barring any unnatural disaster, it is going to be a very good year for Blazing Star. Of course, the Kennebunk Plains are managed, at least in part, for Blazing Star, which is endangered in much of its historical range, and only has the one major foothold left in Maine. Blazing Star is fire dependent, and patterned and scheduled burns on the Plains keep the population healthy.
And, when the Blazing Star is in bloom, it draws its compliment of insects. Bees of several species, lots of Skippers (like the one captured above, which might be the Least Skipper), Hairstreaks (mostly Coral), Swallowtail and Monarch butterflies, and lots of orb weaver spiders. The Halloween Pennant dragonfly hunts among the the other bugs. And the insects draw the birds: Clay-collared and Grasshopper Sparrow, Upland Sandpiper, (all at the limits of their range on the Plains), as well as Savannah and Song Sparrows. The Blazing Star is the base plant, or the most visible member, for a whole community of life…and because it is so beautiful, and so visible, protecting it has protected the whole community. This is good!
I feel privileged to live so close to the remnant population of Blazing Star…to track it year to year in my informal visits to the Plains, and to share it with you in my photos. Being on the Plains when the Northern Blazing Star is in bloom is, for me, a spiritual experience…a instance of natural, spontaneous, worship. Though the Plains buzz with life in August, and hundreds of people come to pick blueberries, for me there is always a hush…a reverence in the presence of the stands of this rare and beautiful plant. It is awesome in the literal sense of the word. I feel the awe, and can only give praise and thanks. Happy Sunday!
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.
Great Spangled Fritillary!
Great Spangled Fritillary, Emmon’s Preserve. Kennenbunkport Land Conservancy.
You just have to love the name! Great Spangled Fritilllary! Great Spangled! (And then, of course, there is the issue of remembering how to spell fritillary…or is it frittilary? I always have to Google it to be sure.) There were dozens of Great Spangled Fritillarys in the fields at Emmon’s Preserve in Kennebunkport yesterday…doing their thing…which is fritting. They frit constantly, often never coming to full rest while in sight. You get the occasional bug, like this one, who is apparently nectaring, and therefore lighting on the Knapweed, at least for a few seconds. This bug turned and showed me all sides. This composite image shows both the Greatness of the wings, and the Spangles on the underside…or is great spangles on the back?
Nikon P900 at 500mm equivalent field of view. 1/250th @ ISO 220 @ f5. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage.
Virginia Ctenucha Moth
Virginia Ctenucha Moth, Timber Point / Timber Island Trail, Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge, ME
I have not been to Timber Point for many weeks and yesterday seemed like a good day, so… I got as far as a wonderful hay meadow full of Knapweed and other wildflowers, where I stopped to add to my “If Monet had lived in Maine” series of painterly meadow shots. While shooting the meadow I found many male Bobolinks singing from perches in the tall grass and flowers, so I went back to the car for my Nikon P900 and its long lens…only to discover that I had grabbed the wrong camera bag on the way out the door. My Nikon was still at home. 🙁 So there I was on a photoprowl with just my Sony HX90V and its 30x zoom. I know…it was only 4 years ago that 30x was the absolute limit of the superzoom world. I have to admit I am totally spoiled by the 83x, 2000mm equivalent zoom on the Nikon P900. Still, it was too far to go back, so I spent the morning pushing the limits of the HX90V and enjoying every moment of it.
After many Monet-like shots in the meadow, and, yes, a few of the Bobolinks with the HX90V’s zoom pushed out to 1440mm equivalent with 2x Clear Image Zoom, I went on to Timber Point. Unexpectedly fog was rolling across the point. Yes well…best laid plans and all that. You take what your get in photoprowls and as in life. I caught sight of this creature in the grasses near the point and could not get a pic, but there it was again in the deep shade along the boardwalk, working the Meadowsweet on the way back. I did my best to photograph it, and took many exposures. I honestly had no idea what it was, but it was an easy search on Google when I got back. I mean, how many orange-headed, blue bodied, moths can there be in Maine? Turns out: just one 🙂
Virginia Ctenucha is a common diurnal moth across the northern states and Canada, currently expanding its range all the way to the west coast in Canada. No one knows whether the nominal specimen was actually collected in Virginia, but Virginia is the extreme southern range of the moth, if it exists there at all. It is much more common further north. And I will cheerfully admit I have no idea how to pronounce the name…I could find no guidance on the web. Ctenucha. Either the C or the T must be mostly silent, or you must fake a vowel…as in “si ten u cha”. Anyway. Really interesting creature.
Sony HX90V at 720mm equivalent field of view. 1/250th @ ISO 125 @ f6.4. Cropped and processed in Lightroom.
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.
Ebony Jewelwings
Ebony Jewelwings, Batson River rapids, Emmons Preserve, Kennebunkport ME
It is just about Ebony Jewelwings time of year again. After my encounter with the River Jewelwings a few weeks ago (here), I went back to the rapids on the Batson River on Saturday to check for early Ebonys, and there were indeed a number of males dancing over the rapids and pools. All Ebonys, no River…which is, I think, an interesting thing to note. And I found no females, either near the river in the forest, or in the meadows. Maybe next week. There is, of course, nothing like the iridescent blue/green of the Ebony Jewelwing’s body…sometimes bright blue and sometimes bright green, depending on the angle of the light.
The center image is from the Sony HX90V and the surrounding images are from the Nikon P900. All are processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage. Coolage is such a great program for this kind of panel!