I have always admired the color of the female Eastern Pondhawk, and in this shot it is shown to best effect, with the white nylon rope and the weathered wood of the dock along Beseck Lake in Middlefield Connecticut. It would be a nice shot even without the dragonfly! 

Sony Rx10iii at 600mm equivalent. Program mode. Processed in Polarr. 

We visited relatives in Connecticut this past weekend. Uncle Al’s house is on Lake Beseck, near Middlefield, and I was treated to numberous speices of Dragonflies. 🙂 I believe this is a female Banded Pennant. They don’t reach quite up into Maine so this is my first one. It is just smaller than a Calico Pennant, and the wings look right. 

Sony Rx10iii at 600mm equivalent. Program mode. Processed in Polarr. 

We visited Uncle Al and the Connecticut Palmero relations yesterday at Uncle Al’s house on the lake. He treated us to a frontyard fireworks display as it got dark. He had found these “fireworks in a can” things that went on for 5 minutes or more with a variety of effects. Very impressive for a frontyard show. 

Sony Rx10iii in Anti-motion Blur mode. Processed in Polarr. 

There are a few Piping Plovers nesting in a protected area at the mouth of the Little River where it crosses Laudholm Beach. The numbers of surviving chicks each year can be counted on the fingers of one hand. They are just hanging on in Maine, and endangered over their whole range. The main problem is predication and human encroachment on their habitat. They nest on the same beaches where humans come to sunbathe and run their dogs…and despite all kinds of signs, and rope enclousures, people and dogs do overrun their nesting areas. I saw only two Piping Plovers on Laudholm beach that I could identify for sure, and maybe a small of flock of a dozen or so in the air. When they are in the rocks like this, where they prefer to feed, they are almost impossible to see. 

Sony Rx10iii at 600mm equivalent. Program mode. My special Birds in flight and action settings. Processed in Polarr. 

My friend Stefan came for a visit and a photopowl yesterday and I took him to Laudholm Farms for the morning. We walked the full perimeter trail and the length of Laudholm Beach up to the mouth of the Little River. Lots of shorebirds. Many Semi-palmated Plovers and Sandpipers, Sanderlings, a couple of Piping Plovers, and, of course, some gulls and a few Least Terns. This Semi-palmated Plover is bowing of his or her moves on the wet beach above the tideline. 

Sony Rx10iii at 600mm equivalent. Program mode with my Action and Birds in Flight memory settings. 1/1000th @ f4 @ ISO 100. Processed in Polarr. 

I went out to fill the meal-worm feeder and caugh a glimpse of this White Admiral flitting around under the trees that separate our yard from the neighbors. I finished filling the feeder and then went for the camera. Over the next 15 minutes I chased the butterfly all over our yard, from one end to the other trying to get a pic. It eventually found a way through the hedge and moved off into another yard, but I did manage a few reasonable shots. 

Sony Rx10iii at 600mm equivalent. Program mode. 1/640th @ ISO 100 @ f4. -.3EV. Processed in Polarr.

I am pretty sure this is just a common Bull Frog, though a little one. It was on the rocks next to the largest pool in the Bascom River at Emmon’s Preserve. It was the size of Northern Leopard frog, but the makings are not right. ?? One of the difficulties I am having is that, if it is a Bull Frog, it is totally out of context. 🙂

Sony Rx10iii at 600mm equivalent. Program mode. 1/250th @ ISO 100 @ f4. Processed in Polarr. 

Here is a close up of the Dragonhunter I found the other day at the Southern Maine Medical Center drainage ponds in Kennebunk Maine. 

Sony Rx10iii at 1200mm equivalent. (In-camera crop.) Program mode. -.3 EV. 1/320th @ f4 @ ISO 100. Processed in Polarr.