Autumn love

September 30, 2015 by Mike Powell

We usually think of springtime as the season of love, but apparently autumn is also a good season if you are a damselfly. I don’t know what was so special about this one plant sticking out of the water, but mating damselfly couples seemed to be competing for a spot to land and deposit their eggs on it this past Monday at Huntley Meadows Park in Alexandria, Virginia.

I’m no expert when it comes to identifying damselflies, in part because so many different species have similar patterns of black and blue, but I think these couples, all in the tandem position, may be Big Bluets (Enallagma durum). I’d welcome any corrections or confirmation of my initial identification.

UPDATE: My local odonate expert, Walter Sanford, weighed in with a correction to my identification—these damselflies are Familiar Bluets (Enallagma civile), not Great Bluets. When it comes to my initial identification, you might say that I blew it.

For those who might be curious about the technical aspects of the photo, I took this with my Canon 50D at 600mm on my Tamron 150-600mm lens, which is the equivalent of 960mm when you take into account the crop sensor of my camera. I continue to be pleased with the amount of detail that I can capture with the relatively affordable long lens, even when it’s extended to its maximum length. If you click on the image, you can see even more of those wonderful details.

Posted in Autumn, Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography | Tagged Alexandria VA, Big Bluet, Canon 50D, Enallagma civile, Enallagma durum, Familiar Bluet, Huntley Meadows Park, mating damselflies, Tamron 150-600mm telephoto | 15 Comments

15 Responses

on September 30, 2015 at 6:47 am | Reply svtakeiteasy

What a magic shot Mike! It has a watercolour quality to it.
- on October 1, 2015 at 4:40 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks, Chris. I hadn’t thought about it in terms of a watercolor, but I can see what you mean. The white background was a bonus that I couldn’t really have planned.
on September 30, 2015 at 8:41 am | Reply cindydyer

Great shot, Michael! I would have gone crazy photographing the scene. I’ve never seen that many mating pairs on one plant.
- on October 1, 2015 at 4:42 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks, Cindy. There was so much activity that it was tough to track and compose a shot (and I was shooting this at long range and worrying about holding the lens steady). I like the way that this image was able to capture some of the action and not simply the perched pairs.
on September 30, 2015 at 9:54 am | Reply waltersanford

Bluets, yes; Big, no. The damselflies in your photo are Familiar Bluets (Enallagma civile).
on September 30, 2015 at 1:40 pm | Reply Sue

What a great shot, Mike. Damselfly numbers were greatly reduced here in MN this year, so I never saw anything like this.
- on October 1, 2015 at 4:38 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks, Sue. I don’t recall seeing all that many damselflies this summer, but they were sure active in this one spot last Friday.
on September 30, 2015 at 7:53 pm | Reply naturesnippets

you were definitely in the right place at the right time!
- on October 1, 2015 at 4:38 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks. That was definitely the case. I noticed the activity on the plant and was focused on it when the third pair of damselflies came flying in.
on September 30, 2015 at 11:28 pm | Reply Birder's Journey

I really like this photo a lot. The composition is wonderful, and it makes me think of a delicate Asian watercolor painting.
on October 1, 2015 at 5:16 am | Reply New Hampshire Garden Solutions

I love that color blue. I wish I knew what it was about the plant that attracted them.
- on October 1, 2015 at 5:58 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  I think this species of damselflies may like to deposit its eggs on aquatic vegetation and there were not a whole lot of plants sticking out of the water at this location (but there were definitely some other choices). At the time I saw them, I didn’t think much about why they were all there–I was trying to get some shots.
on October 3, 2015 at 1:01 am | Reply Thom Hickey

Thanks Mike. Lovely delicacy. Regards Thom
on October 3, 2015 at 9:23 am | Reply bkloflin

Mike, A good and quite interesting post as usual. You have a great diversity of habitats at your disposal for your photography. Please remember to be cautious in your statements about equivalent lens focal lengths compared to 35 mm or full frame cameras. That is not wholly true. The truth lies only in field of view, not in magnification. Please see: https://bkloflin.wordpress.com/2014/12/15/understanding-the-myth-of-crop-sensor-cameras/ . Take good care and keep up your good work.
- on October 3, 2015 at 9:47 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks, Brian, for your words of encouragement and for the reminder about equivalent focal lengths and cropped sensors. The point I was trying to emphasize was that you generally have to take into account the effect of the cropped sensor when applying the reciprocal rule for determining the desirable minimum shutter speed when hand holding the camera. In most cases, I probably should use the term “equivalent field of view,” rather than “equivalent focal length” to be clearer. I sometimes get a little lazy and may be under the influence of the advertising of camera manufacturers, which like to tout the equivalent focal lengths, especially for superzoom point-and-shoot cameras.