I try to do a blog posting almost every day, but I spent this weekend unplugged from the internet at a church retreat in the mountains of Virginia, so I missed a couple of days. When I first started blogging, I was a bit compulsive about it and worried that I would lose all of my followers if I did not post every single day. Now I have a more balanced approach and realize that it is not the end of the world if the clock strikes midnight and I have not posted something new.
Today I am featuring some Brown Spiketail dragonflies (Cordulegaster bilineata) that I spotted last week while exploring Occoquan Regional Park with my fellow dragonfly enthusiast and blogger Walter Sanford. He and I returned to a location where we had spotted this species last year and were delighted to see that members of this species had emerged on schedule. Like many other species that emerge in the early spring, Brown Spiketails have a limited flight period and are found in small numbers at a limited number of locations.
Walter and I discovered that it is helpful to search for these dragonflies together. Often one of us will flush the dragonfly and the other person can observe the direction and the spot to which the dragonfly has relocated. This is really important because, as you can see from the photos, Brown Spiketails perch at an angle or hang vertically from vegetation that is often low to the ground, which makes it difficult to spot them when they are stationary.
Be sure to check out Walter’s posting today of our encounter with the Brown Spiketails. Although he and I were shooting together, we use different camera gear and approaches and our respective images give you different perspective on the same subjects. We also craft our blog postings independently and the style and content of our individual postings tends to reflect our personalities and backgrounds—I have a liberal arts background and Walter has a background in science.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Great photos, Mike. You picked the perfect weekend (for me) to be unplugged. I had so much going on that I was catching up on reading last night, and I had to just skip a bunch of blogs.
Life happens, and if we can’t post or can’t read, the world keep spinning. You were gone for a good reason, I hope you enjoyed the retreat.
Life has many facets. A blog is just one of them. That said, I admire your dedication. The delicacy of the wings here could be a study in itself.
The last photo is like a puzzle for the eyes!
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[…] be flying in Fairfax County. Eight (8) days later, Mike Powell and I spotted our first-of-season Brown Spiketail dragonflies. Thanks for the heads-up, Mike […]