Female Elfin Skimmer

The elfin skimmer is an extremely rare dragonfly for Ohio, known from only a few sites, including Cedar Bog.  Maine is one of its strongholds in the U.S., but I had never seen one at Little Pond, until this trip. I only saw this one female, a wasp mimic, leading me to believe they are not frequent there, and on this day, I just got lucky.

-Tom

Green Darner Mega Closeup

Dragonflies are amazing creatures!  They can see in nearly every direction.  Just look at those compound eyes.  I don't usually net dragonflies, but at Little Pond, I did just that this year.  Catching this male green darner was no easy feet.  After a few shots, he was returned to the friendly skies around the pond.  Green darners are just one of the dozens of dragons and damsels that live within close proximity of Little Pond.

-Tom

Frosted Whiteface Mating Pair, Take 2

When writing this morning's post, I tried to composing it on my iPad.  Needless to say, the results were less than stellar.  This photo should be much better!

-Tom

Frosted Whiteface

The frosted whiteface is a small dragonfly that is sometimes mistaken for the chalk-fronted corporal.  It's about half the size of a corporal, however.  I always spot these dragons resting in the sedges along the edge of the pond, especially Carex lasiocarpa. But until this year's trip, I had never encountered a mating pair.  It's always nice to know there will be more dragonflies!

-Tom

The Chalk-fronted Corporal

The chalk-fronted corporal is quite the rare dragonfly here in Ohio, but quite the common dragonfly in late spring and early summer in Maine.  I've visited before and seen scores of them.  But in July, there are just a few hanging around.  It's always nice to see this species each year on our visit to Maine.  I have found them to be most easy to photograph when they bask on the wooden dock- in fact, most all my photos of this species are of them perched on a non-natural substrate.  In Ohio, they're only known from two northern counties, and are extremely rare here.

-Tom

Dragonfly Season is Here

Dragonfly season has arrived!  Before I had a digital SLR camera, way back in 2006, I took photos of a dragon on the Olentangy that I believed was a rapids clubtail.  These bugs fly in early June, and are easiest to find when the river is low.  Unfortunately, over the last decade or so, I've never encountered another one, that us until this afternoon.  I took several photographs that should be able to seal its identification.  What a beautiful dragon it is!

-Tom

From the Archives

Now that I've posted all my bird photographs on my in-progress photo gallery site, I'm now scrolling through every digital photograph I've taken, sorting them into collections in Lightroom.  I came across this ultra-closeup of one of the spreadwing damselflies I came across in Maine.  What amazing creatures!

-Tom

Female Common Whitetail - Plathemis lydia

Our yard isn't a mecca for dragonflies.  They seldom visit, but every once in a while, they do make an appearance.  This common whitetail was a surprise as it hovered in and out of the bottlebrush grass.  Since I had been photographing absolutely tiny insects, pointing the lens toward this dragon made me feel I was shooting a giant.

-Tom

Tandem Meadowhawks

Here is a tandem pair of meadowhawk dragonflies.  I'm not exactly which sure which species we're looking at, but if I had to guess, I would guess Cherry-faced meadowhawk.  The male's face is awfully red. 

The meadowhawks do the egglaying together.  The male, in front, grasps onto the female's head with the end of his abdomen, and they literally fly in tandem.  Pretty neat trick, isn't it?  I'm not sure if the male makes all the decisions about where to go, or whether there is truly some type of communication between the two.

The female, in back, is just about ready to dip the end of her abdomen in the wet peat of the bog, depositing eggs with each tap.  The pair would hover for a few seconds, drop down to the bog, do some abdomen tapping, and then hover once more.

-Tom

Darner in Flight

One of the Mosaic Darners (species to be determined), Little Pond, Maine- August 26, 2011

Slaty Skimmer up North

There's no place like Maine in the summer time. Megan and I have traveled with the boys on a brief trip see their grandparents. Dragonflies abound. Here's a close-up of the slaty skimmer, a very common species here at Little Pond.

-Tom

Royal River Cruiser, Macromia taeniolata

Delaware Wildlife Area, August 15, 2011

Welcome to Monday everyone.  It's not every Monday that I photograph a new-to-me species of dragonfly, but today I just happened to get lucky.  If my identification passes muster with experts, I believe this is a royal river cruiser, Macromia taeniolata.  This is a pretty darn nice looking bug, isn't it?

I have made a habit of bringing my full camera rig to work every day, and during my lunch break, I take short photographic forays around the adjacent fields and forests.  Today I hit the jackpot.  I had spotted a dark dragon flying around above me as I was photographing ambush bugs, but it was high, far away, and it wasn't stopping to perch.  As I walked back to the office, a dragon zipped from behind me and landed in the edge of the old field, just 15 feet or so from my camera.  I set up, moved in slowly, and bam, I got some shots that I can be proud of.

Although the Ohio Odonata Website isn't completely up-to-date, this sighting could turn out to be a new species for Delaware County.  Normally this species is found relentlessy cruising up and down rivers, but they apparently do break away from time to time to explore adjacent uplands like this individual was doing today.  The main take away from today's photograph?  Never leave home without my good camera!

-Tom

Farewell to Rocky Mountain National Park

The calendar tells me its August, but I'm not quite sure I believe it.  Do you?  Yes- it's been ridiculously hot outside for a long time.  But I'm just not ready for it to be the last month full of summer.  Unfortunately, I don't have a choice- so it's be ready or nothing. 

I hope you've enjoyed my Colorado images.  I spent ALOT of time photographing in the park, and I wanted to take the time to carefully select my best images and present them here.  So much of blogging typically involves the day-to-day activities. But I wanted to take the time to explore a photographic topic in depth.  I hope you've been enjoying it.  If you haven't- let me know with a comment or e-mail.

With these four images, I'll be bringing the Rocky Mountain National Park images to a close.  On our last full day in the park, I wanted to capture some dragonfly and damselfy images.  I went to Lily Lake to see if I could find dragons and damsels- and I did.  I also found fly fisherman, picnicers, wedding parties being photographed, and plenty of day hikers.  I had spent most of my time in the park during the week, but when I hit this spot on a Saturday, I got a taste of just how much the locals use RMNP as a quick getaway from the local cities.

The last image is perhaps one of my favorites from the trip- A lone ponderosa pine, growing in granitic bedrock, overlooking the snowcapped mountains that lead to Long's Peak.  Rocky Mountain National Park is a spectacular place.  Scenic and wildlife photographic opportunities abound.  I hope we are able to return soon. 

-Tom

Prince Baskettail, Olentangy River

It seems like every summer I end up shooting Prince Baskettails in Flight.  This is a fairly common dragonfly- although I photographed it along the Olentangy, it isn't restricted to river habitats.  This species flies back and forth in the same general area, at shoulder level, all day, looking for food.  You can stand in one place for an hour, and they'll fly by you hundreds of times- so they're great for dragonfly-in-flight photography.  I find photographing dragonflies in flight one of the hardest things to do- but when I get home and see shots like this from my new 7D, standing in a river in the hot afternoon sun becomes totally worth it.

Tom

Tattered Wings of an Autumn Meadowhawk

The tattered wings of an autumn meadowhawk, photographed today on the Delaware Widlife area. 

Over the past months, I have struggled to give direction to this blog.  The best blogs are focused and updated frequently, and those two qualities have been sorely missing here.  To get me back into the blogging mood, during the work week, I'm going to present one image each evening that represents a simple nature observation I made earlier in the day.  I expect that my 30 mile drive north into the farm country of central Ohio should give me plenty of material for this venture.

During today's lunch break, I encountered this tattered, autumn meadowhawk that has survived several significant frosts.   With snow in the forecast for the end of the week, this insect is not long for this world, but our 60 degree temperatures gave me something to be thankful for- the opportunity to photograph a dragonfly in late November.

Tom

Bad Day for Pondhawk, Good Day for Spider

Taken on my lunch break this past week with the Canon D10- Delaware Wildlife Area, Ashley, Ohio.

Eastern Least Clubtail

Eastern least clubtail, Stylogomphus albistylus- Otisfield, Maine

While visiting Megan's parents in Maine last month, I wanted to make sure I make the arduous 1 mile trek (Ok, i'm kidding) down the highway to the Crooked River.  In the past, I had seen many interesting dragonflies there.  Rivers often harbor species completely different from bogs and ponds, and the Crooked did not dissapoint.  I had a wonderful time stalking and photographing the tiny Eastern Least Clubtail- from head to the tip of its abdomen, no longer than an inch and a half.

These clubtails are known from Ohio too- but I've never seen them.  Rocky streams seem to be a good place to find them, and Rosche, Semroc, and Gilbert say they can be seen on the Grand River and Conneaut Creek in northeast Ohio.

Tom

Slaty Skimmer, Pickerel Weed

Those four words have a nice rhythm to them- the amalgam of insect and plant.  I'm back from Maine, and although I'd love to spend an hour typing why this was our worst trip to "vacationland" ever, I just don't have the energy.  I'm home, with a freak summer cold, while Megan and Weston recover from the same virus in Maine.  Weston's cold developed into an ear infection and we had to take him to the emergency room Saturday morning after two mostly sleepless nights and near nonstop screaming.  My brother-in-law likened it to the high pitch squeals from the Velociraptors in the movie Jurassic Park.

Megan and Weston delayed their travel plans to give Weston more time to recover before the pressure changes of the airplane.  And it's a good thing they did, because my ears are still sore from today's flight.

While in Maine, I did get out a bit to photograph mostly dragonflies.  I have been feeding you a steady stream of odonates, I hope you enjoy these amazing bugs.

Tom

Female Eastern Pondhawk

It's hard to believe this is the same species as yesterday's dragon, but it is.  This is a female eastern pondhawk, which looks completely different from the male.  This is one of the most easily recognizable dragonflies in Ohio, look for one near a field, river, or wetland near you.

Tom

More Flying Things

After seeing my dragonflies in flight pictures, my friend John Howard, who hails from Adams County Ohio sent me these fantastic shots of a hummingbird clearwing moth and a fantastic comet darner.  Amazing John!

Tom