April | 2022 | Mike Powell

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Archive for April, 2022

Prairie Warbler

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Canon 50D, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, Prairie Warbler, Setophaga discolor, Tamron 150-600mm, warbler, Woodbridge VA on April 30, 2022| 8 Comments »

I spotted this colorful Prairie Warbler (Setophaga discolor) as it was singing high in a tree on Thursday at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Most of the time I spot birds like this when they fly to a new perch, but this warbler stubbornly refused to move. I stared and stared at the tree, desperately trying to locate the source of the song that the bird was singing over and over again.

I finally located the warbler in the crook of a branch. I was looking upward at such an acute angle that I mostly got a view of the underside of the bird, but eventually I captured the first image in which the warbler was singing. Prairie Warblers have an unusual rising song that the Cornell Lab of Ornithology described in these words, “The Prairie Warbler sings a distinctive, rising and accelerating song with a buzzy quality, zee-zee-zee-zee-zee-zeeeee.” If you click on this link, you can listen to several sound samples of the songs of the Prairie Warbler.

I do not know how much longer the migratory warblers will be in my area, but I hope to have another chance to see some of these joyous little birds. I am still not confident in my identification skills for warblers, so there is a chance that I am wrong about this being a Prairie Warbler, but its beauty is undeniable.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Black Swallowtail in April

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, Portraits, spring, wildlife, tagged black swallowtail, black swallowtail butterfly, Canon 50D, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, Tamron 150-600mm, Woodbridge VA on April 29, 2022| 6 Comments »

I was delighted yesterday to spot this beautiful Black Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio polyxenes) at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, the first one that I have seen this season. At this time of the year I am always struck by the pristine look of the newly emerged butterflies—later in the season they will become tattered and faded.

In my area we have four different black swallowtails—the Black Swallowtail, the Spicebush Swallowtail, the Pipevine Swallowtail, and the dark morph female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. Sometimes it can be difficult to distinguish between the species, but in this case it was really easy. Male and female Black Swallowtails can be identified by the black dot inside the orange dot in the middle of the bottom of the hind wings, as you can see in this photo. Several years ago I came across a wonderful posting by the Louisiana Naturalist that has side-by-side comparisons of these four species and tips on how to tell them apart.

Last Friday, Jet Eliot, a wonderful writer and blogger who lives on the West Coast, wrote a fascinating blog posting entitled Swallowtail Butterflies that looked at some of the swallowtails in her area as well as others that she has encountered during her worldwide travels. The photos in the posting by Athena Alexander are astounding and Jet’s prose is informative and inspiring. I encourage you to check out the posting and leave you with this wonderful snippet from Jet—”I am often buoyed by these dancing kaleidoscopic creatures who start out so immobile and teensy and dark, and as each day turns to the next, they somehow know what to do. Soon they have mysteriously blossomed into delicate splendor.”

Have a wonderful weekend.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Mayapples in April

Posted in Flowers, Photography, spring, tagged Accotink Bay Wildlife Refuge, Canon 50D, Fort Belvoir VA, Mayapple, Podophyllum peltatum, Tamron 180mm on April 29, 2022| 8 Comments »

Most flowers have blooms at the end of their stems or at least in places above their leaves. Each spring, though, I encounter Mayapples (Podophyllum peltatum), a weird plant that seems to work in a totally different way. It puts out large umbrella-shaped leaves and eventually a single white blossom appears at the juncture point where the stem branches off in two directions. If you don’t know that the blooms are there, it is easy to miss them, because the large leaves hide them from view.

I saw a large number of Mayapples on Wednesday at Accotink Bay Wildlife Refuge at the edge of Fort Belvoir, a nearby Army base where I have seen Mayapples in the past, but most often before or after they had flowered. I tried to capture the unique way that this plant grows in these photos, which was a bit of a challenge, because the blooms are so close to the ground.

I came across a fascinating article on the Wisconsin Horticulture website that noted that Mayapple “typically grows in colonies from a single root in open deciduous forests and shady fields, riverbanks and roadsides…The upright stems grow from a shallow, creeping, branched underground rhizome, composed of many thick dark or reddish-brown tubers connected by fleshy fibers and downward spreading roots at the nodes. Each terminal bud produces a shoot. The mostly unbranched 12-18 inch tall stems are topped with umbrella-like (peltate) leaves. The leaves remain furled as the stem elongates in the spring, unfolding when the stem nears its full height. Each smooth, pale green, rounded, palmate leaf has 5-9 shallowly to deeply cut lobes. There are one or two leaves per stem, each up to a foot across. Only stems with more than one leaf will flower. Mayapple often forms large, dense colonies in the wild.”

As most of you know, I focus mostly on wildlife in my photography, but my almost insatiable sense of curiosity draws me to anything weird and wonderful that attracts my attention, like these Mayapples.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Hunger, not lust

Posted in Dragonflies, dragonfly, Insects, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Anax junius, Canon 50D, Common Green Darner, Common Green Darner dragonfly, Common Whitetail, Common Whitetail dragonfly, Lorton VA, Occoquan Regional Park, Plathemis lydia, Tamron 180mm on April 28, 2022| 3 Comments »

I was tracking a Common Green Darner dragonfly (Anax junius) in my viewfinder yesterday at Occoquan Regional Park, when suddenly another dragonfly flew into the frame. The two dragonflies appeared to hook up in mid-air and I assumed that they were mating. When they landed in some nearby vegetation, however, I discovered that it was hunger and not lust that had brought them together. The Common Green Darner was having lunch with a Common Whitetail dragonfly (Plathemis lydia), and it was the main course.

Dragonflies feed on other live insects and they aren’t picky eaters—they will eat any insect they can catch, including other dragonflies. Midges and mosquitoes make up the bulk of their diet, but dragonflies also prey on flies, bees, beetles, moths, butterflies, and other flying insects. The larger the dragonfly, the larger the prey insect it can consume.

As you can see from the photo, Common Green Darners are quite large, with an overall length of approximately three inches (76 mm), while Common Whitetails are considerably smaller, with an overall length of approximately 1.7 inches (43 mm).

Common Green Darners are really powerful fliers too and are one of only a handful of dragonfly species that migrate. The adult Common Green Darners that I see this early in the season are likely to be migrants from locations further south. Kevin Munroe described their migration really well on the wonderful Dragonflies of Northern Virginia website:

“They emerge in the Southeast and fly north, arriving here late March thru May. After their long flight, they mate, lay eggs and die. Their young emerge in July and August. Congregating in large swarms, this second generation begins flying south in September. They lay eggs that fall, after arriving in their southern destinations, and die. When their young hatch in March, they fly back to N. VA and it starts again – a two generation migration.”

The Common Whitetail in the photo probably emerged only recently and may have been particularly vulnerable. Some may find this photo to be a little disturbing or a bit too graphic, but I think it shows the “circle of life” in nature. Yesterday the Common Green Darner was the predator, but tomorrow it could become the prey of a bird or some other creature higher up on the food chain—all creatures have to eat.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Pseudo studio iris photos

Posted in Flowers, Gardening, Nature, Photography, Portraits, spring, studio photography, tagged Alexandria VA, Bearded Iris, Canon 50D, Canon 60mm macro, Cindy's garden, irises, Runnymeade on April 27, 2022| 19 Comments »

It is now the season for irises. All kinds of irises are starting to pop open in the garden of my dear friend and photography mentor Cindy Dyer. We are neighbors in a townhouse community in Northern Virginia, which means there is relatively little space for gardening, but Cindy manages to pack an amazing amount of flower power into her limited area. Fortunately, she and her husband, who is also a Michael, live in an end-unit, so they have a bit more space than the interior units.

Cindy likes to select flowers to grow that she knows will be photogenic and love to pore over the flower catalogues on line. Our challenge is to figure out how to capture the beauty of these carefully selected flowers in the crowed garden. One of Cindy’s techniques is to use a small artificial background to help to isolate the flower. Often she uses a white foam core board to which she has attached a piece of black velvet-like material. She can then create studio-like images with a black or white background, depending on the flower.

This technique requires two people, because it is almost impossible to hold the background in place and frame a shot at the same time. I took these iris photos yesterday while Cindy held the background in place for me and then we reversed positions. In some of the images it looks like I was using some kind of studio lighting, but it was all natural night on a somewhat cloudy day that diffused the light nicely.

You don’t really need any special equipment to create this effect—you could use almost anything for a background. The day before, our improvised background was a collapsible black storage cube from IKEA that Cindy had just given me. The final photo, taken by Cindy with her iPhone, shows me holding that black cube and gives you a sense of the garden environment and how the technique is used.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Female and male Uhler’s Sundragons

Posted in Dragonflies, dragonfly, Insects, Nature, Photography, Portraits, spring, wildlife, tagged Canon 50D, female Uhler's Sundragon, Helocordulia uhleri, male Uhler's Sundragon, Prince William County VA, Tamron 180mm, Uhler's Sundragon, Uhler's Sundragon dragonfly on April 26, 2022| 10 Comments »

When the dragonfly season first starts, I am content to get a record shot of each species, which is to say that I am looking primarily to document the species and am not all that concerned about the quality of the initial images or their artistic merits. After the first excitement dies down, I try to get better and better images and one of the things that I often try to do is to photograph males and females of each species.

How do you tell the gender of a dragonfly? In some dragonfly species, the mature males and females have different colors and are easy to tell apart. However, quite often immature males have the same coloration as the females, so color alone is rarely a reliable marker. I have found that the best way to determine the gender is to look at the tips of the abdomen (the “tail”)—I won’t go into the details of dragonfly anatomy, but suffice it to say that the males and females have different shapes in this area so they can fit together for mating.

Over the last two weeks I have had several encounters with Uhler’s Sundragon dragonflies (Helocordulia uhleri) and was able to get shots of both a male and a female. The dragonfly in the first image is a female. I can tell its gender by the shape of the “terminal appendages” and also by the curved shape of the hind wings where they join the body.

If you look closely at the second image, which is a shot of a male, you can see that the lower portion of the abdomen is slightly enlarged—the abdomen is more uniformly shaped with a female—and the shape of the tip of the abdomen is different. You might also notice that the shape of the hind wings is “indented” where they meet the body, unlike the smooth curves of the female.

With some species, you can find the males and the females in the same area, so it is not hard to get shots of both genders. However, with other species, the females hang out in separate areas and do not mingle with the males until the females decide it is time for mating, which forces me to search a much wider area to photograph males and females.

I apologize if I got a little “geeky” in this posting. I am a little obsessed with dragonflies and am endlessly fascinated by them, so it is easy for me to get a little lost in the details.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Little white butterflies

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Cabbage White, Cabbage White butterfly, Canon 50D, Cupido comyntas, Eastern Tailed-blue, Eastern Tailed-blue butterfly, Lorton VA, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, Occoquan Regional Park, Pieris rapae, Tamron 150-600mm, Tamron 180mm, Woodbridge VA on April 25, 2022| 7 Comments »

Quite often the simplest of subjects can be incredibly beautiful, like these little white butterflies that I photographed last week. Many folks might dismiss these nondescript creatures as moths or simply ignore them. It really is worthwhile to slow down and look at them closely.

The butterfly in the first photo is a Cabbage White (Pieris rapae) that was feeding on a patch of what I believe is purple dead nettle. Although it looks like a macro shot, I captured the image at the 600mm end of my telephoto zoom lens.

I took the next two pictures with an actual macro lens, my trusty Tamron 180mm lens. The tiny Eastern Tailed-Blue butterfly (Cupido comyntas) has a wingspan of about an inch (25 mm) and I was thrilled to capture so much detail of its beauty, including the little “tails.”

Beauty is everywhere.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Female Stream Cruiser

Posted in Dragonflies, dragonfly, Insects, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Canon 50D, Didymops transversa, Prince William County VA, Stream Cruiser, Stream Cruiser dragonfly, Tamron 180mm on April 24, 2022| 5 Comments »

As I was wandering about on Friday in Prince William County, a dragonfly zoomed by me and perched on some nearby vegetation. At the time I took the shots, I had no idea what it was because of the poor lighting. I was able to capture a few images and when I opened them on my computer I was delighted to discover that I had photographed a beautiful female Stream Cruiser dragonfly (Didymops transversa).

This was the first live Stream Cruiser dragonfly that I have photographed this spring. A week earlier I stumbled upon a Stream Cruiser that had had some unspecified problem in emerging and was dead, as shown in the second photo. Dragonflies are extremely vulnerable when they are emerging and unfavorable weather conditions and predators almost certainly lower their survival rate. Given the magnitude of their remarkable metamorphosis, it seems remarkable to me that any of them can survive.

My experience with the Stream Cruiser in the first photo reminds me of the importance of being constantly vigilant. I was walking down a hill, headed towards a stream, when I glanced to the side and saw the flying dragonfly. I made a quick 180 degree turn and tracked the dragonfly as it landed. I took two steps forward and and had time to snap off only a few photos and that was it.

Fortunately I had my camera settings were somewhat appropriate and I was able to react quickly. As is often the case with wildlife photography, those two factors were key to capturing a shot. If the circumstances had been different, I might have been able to get a better image, but I am pretty happy with the image I captured. Needless to say, success is not guaranteed—I have plenty of stories from that day of the ones that got away.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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White-eyed Vireo

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Canon 50D, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, Tamron 150-600mm, vireo, Vireo griseus, White-eyed Vireo, Woodbridge VA on April 23, 2022| 20 Comments »

I could hear a bird singing in a tree on Wednesday at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, but I had trouble finding it. Eventually I spotted some movement and was able to track the bird, but it remained mostly hidden. I saw some flashes of yellow and assumed that it was some sort of warbler. I finally managed to get decent shot of it and was anxious to check out my birding guide to see what it was.

When I looked through the warbler section of the book, none of the images seemed to match “my bird.” What else could it be? Suddenly I remembered that a couple of other local photographers had mentioned seeing vireo at this refuge. Could this be a vireo?

The overall coloration and the stunning eye convinced me that this is almost certainly a White-eyed Vireo (Vireo griseus), a new species for me. This is definitely one of the coolest looking birds that I have seen in a long time. I love the wash of pale yellow on its breast and the darker yellow around its bill. If you click on the image and look carefully at the bill, you will see that it is slightly hooked, which is not the case with warblers.

I went to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology website to learn a bit more about the behavior of this species—”White-eyed Vireos hop among branches and make short flights between shrubs, making sure to stay well hidden in the process. Males sing from the edges of understory vegetation all day long, even during the heat of the day.” I still have trouble geolocating a bird on the basis of sound, but can use all the help I can get.

I am currently alternating between looking for birds and looking for dragonflies. At this time of the year, they are found in vastly different habitats, so I have to make a decision when I set out in my car. I am absolutely thrilled that I have already had some success with both birds and dragonflies this spring and look forward to new discoveries.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Pine Warbler

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Canon 50D, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, pine warbler, Setophaga pinus, Tamron 150-600mm, warbler, Woodbridge VA on April 22, 2022| 6 Comments »

Yesterday I featured a warbler that was so brightly colored that it was impossible to miss. Today’s warbler is the complete opposite—it was so nondescript and so well hidden that it was almost impossible to see and initially I could not even identify it from my photos.

My eyes detected some motion high in a pine tree on Wednesday at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge and I stopped. I had set my long lens on a monopod, so my arms did not get tired as I strained to make out the bird that was moving about among the pine needles and the pine cones, though my neck quickly became sore. It looked like the bird was feeding on little seeds, so it would stop momentarily from time to time, giving me a change to find it in my viewfinder and acquire focus.

None of my shots was spectacular, but I was able to capture enough details of the bird’s body that some experts in a Facebook birding group identified it as a Pine Warbler (Setophaga pinus). Not only were they able to identify the species of the bird, they determined that it was a first year female on the basis of its markings and coloration. I am always amazed when confronted with that level of expertise.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Prothonotary Warblers

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Canon 50D, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, Prothonotary Warbler, Protonotaria citrea, Tamron 150-600mm, Woodbridge VA on April 21, 2022| 29 Comments »

Yesterday I set aside my macro lens and put my telephoto zoom lens back on my camera. Over the past week, I have seen some amazing photos by local photographers of a variety of colorful warblers that migrate through our area in the spring and the fall and I felt compelled to try to photograph them. I must confess, though, that I have never had much success photographing warblers. I can often hear these little birds, but have trouble locating them in the tops of the trees—they seem to be teasing me as they flit about and sing their songs.

I walked around a lot and eventually had several encounters with Prothonotary Warblers (Protonotaria citrea) at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Some warblers have markings and colors that allow them to be camouflaged in the foliage, but the plumage of a Prothonotary Warbler is such a bright yellow that it is impossible for one to hide.

These warblers never seem to sit still for very long and they move quickly from branch to branch. I was happy that I was able to track them reasonably well, considering that I had my zoom lens extended to its maximum length. It takes some practice to be able to see something with your eye and then be able to point the lens in the proper direction.

I exceeded my expectations in getting these shots and also managed to photograph several other bird species that I will probably be featuring in future postings. Today I will probably switch back to my macro lens and focus again on insects. The transitional seasons definitely keep me busy as I try to keep an eye on close-in subjects and those that are farther away.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Ashy Clubtails in April

Posted in Dragonflies, dragonfly, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Ashy Clubtail, Ashy Clubtail dragonfly, Canon 50D, Phanogomphus lividus, Prince William County VA, Tamron 180mm on April 20, 2022| 3 Comments »

Ashy Clubtail dragonflies (Phanogomphus lividus) like to perch on the ground, which makes them really difficult to spot. Fortunately I saw these two dragonflies land last Friday during separate encounters in Prince William County and was able to get close enough and low enough to photograph them. If I had not seen them move, I probably would not have been able to detect them.

Both dragonflies had really shiny wings, an indication that they had emerged fairly recently. Initially the wings are fragile when a dragonfly emerges and they are folded above its head. The dragonfly gradually pumps fluid through the veins of the wings and they progressively harden and pop open into the normal outstretched resting position. Sometimes, as you can see in the final photo, a dragonfly will temporarily hold its wings closed over its head in their former position.

Dragonfly metamorphosis is a fascinating phenomenon, a remarkable transformation of a water-dwelling larva into an incredible aerial acrobat. Several years ago I managed to witness the entire process with a Common Sanddragon dragonfly and documented the thirty-minute process in a blog posting entitled Metamorphosis of a dragonfly. Be sure to check out that posting to see photos of the different stages of the amazing transformation.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Butterflies down low

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged bluet, Can on 50D, dark morph, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly, Houstonia caerulea, Papilio glaucus, Prince William County VA, Quaker Ladies, Tamron 180mm on April 19, 2022| 5 Comments »

Recently I did a posting that featured Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterflies (Papilio glaucus)—see Swallowtails in the forest. None of those butterflies seemed to be involved in searching for nectar and seemed content to take in minerals and water.

Last Friday I returned to that same location in Prince William County, Virginia and discovered that the butterflies were taking advantage of the few small flowers that were blooming. In the first photo, an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail was nectaring on the small bluets (Houstonia caerulea) that are sometimes referred to as Quaker Ladies. The butterfly was so low to the ground that it looked like it was dragging its “tails.”

The butterfly in the second image is a dark morph Eastern Tiger Swallowtail female. Females of this species are dimorphic—there is a yellow variant that looks like the one in the first photo and a dark variant that looks like the one in the second image. The dark morph female was almost flat on the ground as she gathered nectar from a very short dandelion.

As more flowers begin to bloom, I am sure these butterflies will have a better selection of sources of nourishment, but the early arrivers have to make do with a really limited menu of choices.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Dragonfly close-ups

Posted in Dragonflies, dragonfly, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Canon 50D, compound eyes, Helocordulia uhleri, Prince William County VA, Tamron 180mm, Uhler's Sundragon, Uhler's Sundragon dragonfly on April 18, 2022| 15 Comments »

Have you ever taken a close-up look at a dragonfly’s amazing compound eyes? Dragonflies have the largest compound eyes of any insect; each containing up to 30,000 facets, and the eyes cover most of the insect’s head, resembling a motorcycle helmet. According to a wonderful article by GrrlScientist, “each facet within the compound eye points in a slightly different direction and perceives light emanating from only one particular direction in space, creating a mosaic of partially overlapping images.”

How exactly does that work? Scientists are still not sure how this visual mosaic is integrated in the dragonfly’s brain. If you can get close enough for a shot, you can actually see the individual facets, technically known as ommatidia. The first image below is a cropped image of an unusually cooperative Uhler’s Sundragon (Helocordulia uhleri) that I encountered last Friday while exploring a stream in Prince William County. If you click on the image, you can see the pattern of facets in the eyes.

The second image is an uncropped version of the first photo. I like the way that I as able to capture so many details of the dragonfly as it perched, like the spiky hairs on its legs and the stubble on its face as well as the pollen on its body.

The dragonfly in the third shot is another Uhler’s Sundragon that I spotted later in the day. From this angle, you can see the dragonfly’s tiny feet as it grasps the dried stalk of vegetation.

I love close-up images and will often try to capture them after I have taken some initial shots. When I am at close range, the angle of view is particularly important, because the depth of field is so shallow—some legs of the dragonfly, for example, will inevitably be out of focus, so I have to choose carefully what I want to be in focus.

Hand-holding and breathing techniques are also really important, because any movement will cause the fine details to be blurred. This is a bit of a challenge with the 180mm macro lens that I use because it does not have any built-in image stabilization.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Easter 2022

Posted in Art, Easter, Flowers, Nature, Photography, spring, tagged Canon 50D, Easter, Easter 2022, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, orchids, Richmond VA, Tamron 180mm on April 17, 2022| 33 Comments »

Happy Easter. My childhood memories of Easter are full of flowers, with the interiors of churches filled with lilies and tulips. Today, I decided to post images of some of the orchids that I photographed during a recent visit to Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden. This garden has a wonderful glass-domed conservatory that houses all kinds of exotic plants—it was a fun challenge to try to capture a sense of the beauty of these flowers in such a confined, warm, and humid space.

Not everyone, of course, is celebrating Easter and for Orthodox Christians Easter will come next Sunday. Still, I think that today is a good moment for us all to pause and reflect on what is important to us. My simple prayer is that all of our lives will be filled with peace, love, and with renewed hope, irrespective of whether you are observing this holy day today.

Alleluia! Christ is Risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Alleluia!

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Blue Corporal dragonflies

Posted in Dragonflies, dragonfly, Insects, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Blue Corporal, Blue Corporal dragonfly, Canon 50D, Ladona deplanata, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, Tamron 180mm, Woodbridge VA on April 16, 2022| 5 Comments »

I was happy to spot several Blue Corporal dragonflies (Ladona deplanata) on Wednesday at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, my first dragonflies of the year at that location. Blue Corporals almost always perch low to the ground, which makes them a challenge to photograph, as you can see in these photos.

In our area, Blue Corporals are found most often in the coastal plain region, unlike the Uhler’s Sundragon that I featured in an earlier posting (First dragonfly of 2022) that is found at rocky forest streams. Most of the early spring dragonflies are found in specific and limited habitats, while many of the summer species can thrive in a variety of habitats.

You may have noticed that none of these Blue Corporals are blue. Adult males are bluish in color and both the male and the female have two white stripes on their thoraxes in an area that you might think of as their shoulders. In the military of the United States, the rank insignia for corporals is two stripes, which accounts for that portion of the common name for the species.

When males first emerge, however, they share the same tan coloration as the females and as they mature they turn blue. (Here’s a link to a 2018 posting called A Bluer Corporal that shows a mature male.) The dragonfly in the final photo looks to be an immature and the one in the middle photo is a female—the angle of the first photo makes it hard for me to determine its gender.

It is still really early in the dragonfly season, so I am excited every single time that I spot one. Actually my enthusiasm for dragonflies barely wanes as we get deeper into the season and the early dragonflies give way to new species.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Swallowtails in the forest

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Canon 50D, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly, Papilio glaucus, Prince William County VA, Tamron 180mm on April 15, 2022| 11 Comments »

On Monday I saw a surprisingly large number of Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterflies (Papilio glaucus) as I explored a stream in Prince William County, Virginia. I used to associate these butterflies with gardens, because that is where I had previously seen them most of the time. Over the past years, though, as I have searched for early spring dragonflies, I have gotten used to seeing these colorful butterflies alongside the streams, often congregating in groups to drink and extract minerals from puddles (see my blog post from last year called A kaleidoscope of butterflies for more information and a photo of this phenomenon).

These swallowtails seemed content to fly about continuously, searching and exploring, but rarely perching. When they did come to the ground, they often landed in patches of fallen leaves, as you can see in the second and third images. I was happy when one of the butterflies opted to perch on a fern, which made it a little easier for me to photograph it.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Not a dragonfly

Posted in Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, spring, wildlife, tagged Canon 50D, crane fly, Prince William County VA, Tamron 180mm, Tipula noveboracensis on April 14, 2022| 6 Comments »

There are not very many insects that could be mistaken for a dragonfly, but the color and pattern on the abdomen of this crane fly made me do a double take when I spotted it from a distance on Monday in Prince William County. At that time I had not yet seen my first dragonfly of the year and was anxious to see one. An expert in a Facebook group identified this as a Crane Fly (Tipula noveboracensis).

The first image is a cropped version of the photo that allows you to focus on the wonderful patterns on the wings and the body. If you click on the image, you can see that the crane fly has antennae. The second shot is much less cropped and gives you an idea of the length of the extremely long legs of this insect.

When I am out in the winter looking for birds, I sometimes end up taking photos of odd branches or clumps of leaves, because their shapes make me think that they might be birds. I have the same “problem” with dragonflies—I am likely to photograph anything that remotely resembles a dragonfly, knowing that later I will be able to sort the images and remove the oddball results. Sometimes, as was the case here, my strange results are worth posting.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Virginia Bluebells

Posted in Bees, Flowers, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, spring, tagged bluebells, Canon 50D, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, Mertensia virginica, Richmond VA, Tamron 180mm, Virginia Bluebells on April 13, 2022| 6 Comments »

I was delighted to spot some Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica) during a trip last week to Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden. This spring ephemeral plant has beautiful bell-shaped sky-blue flowers and is native to eastern North America. The bees seemed to be equally excited to see these flowers. My photos suggest that the bees, which appear to be Carpenter Bees, were getting to the nectar through the tube of the flowers rather than through the bell.

I really like the varied shades of blues and pinks in the bluebells in different shades of development. The colors work well together, sometimes even combining to produce a lovely shade of violet.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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First dragonfly of 2022

Posted in Dragonflies, dragonfly, Insects, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Canon 50D, female Uhler's Sundragon, First Dragonfly of 2022, Helocordulia uhleri, Prince William County VA, Tamron 180mm, Uhler's Sundragon, Uhler's Sundragon dragonfly on April 12, 2022| 18 Comments »

I finally found my first dragonfly of the season yesterday—a female Uhler’s Sundragon—while I was exploring a stream in Prince William County. Uhler’s Sundragons (Helocordulia uhleri) are considered to be rare in our area. This species requires a very specific type of habitat and has an early and very brief flight period.

So where would you find one? According to the wonderful Dragonflies of Northern Virginia website, “Uhler’s need clean, small to medium, rocky forest streams with gravelly and/or sandy substrate, and a decent flow. They can be found in sunny clearings and forest edges near their streams.”

Fortunately I have found this species at a particular stream the last several years, so that is where I headed yesterday. I searched the spots where I had found Uhler’s Sundragons in the past, but came up empty-handed. I walked along extended lengths of the stream and eventually found the one in the photograph below—it was the only dragonfly that I spotted all day.

My hike yesterday lasted 4 hours and 42 minutes and covered 7.18 miles (11.55 km), according to my GPS app. My pace was pretty slow, partly because I was scanning for dragonflies, but also because the terrain was full of ups and downs. I pasted in a chart from the GPS readout to give you an idea of the type of terrain that I covered. According to my iPhone, I walked up the equivalent of 21 floors, which explains why my legs are a little sore this morning.

As many of you know, dragonflies are my favorite subjects during the warm months—there is something almost magical about these beautiful aerial acrobats. I am therefore super excited that the 2022 dragonfly season has officially started for me.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Water Snake in April

Posted in Macro Photography, Nature, Portraits, Reptiles, snake, spring, wildlife, tagged Canon 50D, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, Nerodia sipedon, Northern Water Snake, Northern Watersnake, Richmond VA, Tamron 180mm on April 11, 2022| 12 Comments »

Some people speak figuratively about a “snake in the grass,” but that is literally what I encountered last Friday at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Richmond, Virginia. The Northern Water Snake (Nerodia sipedon) was moving about in a grass patch at the edge of a small stream when I first spotted it.

When the snake raised its head to look around, I got down low and moved closer. How close was I? I was using a relatively long macro lens, which makes it look like I was closer than I actually was, but I was close enough that you can see my reflection in the snake’s eye. The second image image is merely a cropped version of the first image that lets you focus more closely on the eye.

Photographically, though, I prefer the first image. I like the way that I was able to capture blurry grass in both the foreground and the background. The rocky area at the bottom of the image helps to ground the snake and provides a sense of the environment.

I recognize that some people find snakes to be creepy, but I am fascinated by them. It was interesting to note that as I was moving closer to the snake when I saw it, others were moving farther away from it.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Grackle at water’s edge

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Canon 50D, Common Grackle, grackle, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, Quiscalus quiscula, Richmond VA, Tamron 180mm on April 10, 2022| 19 Comments »

From a distance Common Grackles (Quiscalus quiscula) often appear to be black, but often you can spot their distinctive yellow eyes. When you get closer, especially when the lighting is good, you discover that the grackles are covered with an array of multi-colored iridescent feathers.

On Friday I spotted this grackle while I was exploring Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Richmond, Virginia with fellow photographer Cindy Dyer. The grackle was poking around at the edge of the water of a small pond and moving about a lot. I had to maneuver around to get a clear shot of the bird, which was a bit of challenge, because overhanging vegetation partially obstructed my view.

Eventually I was able to capture this image. I had my macro lens on my camera at the time, but fortunately its focal length of 180mm means that it also works as a short telephoto lens. I often tell people that it is best to take a photo with whatever camera gear you have in your hand when a situation arises, even if it does not appear to be the ideal option. If I had stopped to change lenses—I had a longer lens in my backpack—I am pretty sure I would missed this fun little shot of the grackle.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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First damselflies of the spring

Posted in damselfly, Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Canon 50D, Fragile Forktail, Fragile Forktail damselfly, Ischnura posita, Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, Richmond VA, Tamron 180mm on April 9, 2022| 7 Comments »

Yesterday I travelled with fellow photographer Cindy Dyer to Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Richmond, Virginia. While Cindy focused on the numerous tulips and other spring flowers that were in bloom, I immediately headed for the ponds in search of frogs, turtles, snakes, and dragonflies.

On one of my trips around a small pond I finally encounter my first damselfly of the season—a male Fragile Forktail damselfly (Ischnura posita). Most damselflies are hard to identify, but Fragile Forktails of both sexes are pretty easy to identify because both sexes have interrupted pale should stripes that look like exclamation points.

Eventually I spotted several other Fragile Forktails and was able to get some decent shots of them, despite their small size—they are a very small species with a body length of only 0.8 to 1.1 inches (21-29 mm). I was hoping to get some shots of the damselflies perched on vegetation, but in all of the photos I managed to get the damselflies were perched on rocks.

I was happy later in the to spot a Common Green Darner dragonfly in flight, but was not able to get a shot of it. From my perspective, my first dragonfly of the season does not “count” unless I am able to capture a photo of it. So this week I will be out in the wild again, seeking to capture my first dragonfly shot of the season.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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More Cricket Frogs

Posted in Amphibians, frog, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Acris crepitans, acris crepitans crepitans, Canon 50D, cricket frog, Eastern Cricket Frog, Northern Cricket frog, Tamron 180mm on April 8, 2022| 5 Comments »

Following the lead of fellow photographer Steve Gingold, I decided that today is a Frog Friday. I spotted these Eastern Cricket Frog (Acris crepitans), one of the smallest frogs in Virginia, on Monday as I was exploring in Prince William County. I really like frogs and was happy to capture some of the cool details of these frogs in these shots, like their tiny toes.

Be sure to check out Steve’s blog posting for today entitled Frog Friday—before and after. While you are there, I encourage you to poke about on his site—Steve has an amazing array of nature photos that he has taken, primarily in the western part of Massachusetts.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Six-spotted Tiger Beetle in April

Posted in Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Canon 50D, Cicindela sexguttata, Prince William County VA, Six-spotted Tiger Beetle, Tamron 180mm, Tiger Beetle on April 7, 2022| 17 Comments »

The ground in the forest is covered with fallen leaves at this time of the year, making it really easy to spot a Six-spotted Tiger Beetle (Cicindela sexguttata). The metallic green of their bodies shines so brightly that it is almost impossible to miss them as they scurry in and out of the underbrush.

I spotted this little beauty on Monday as I searched for dragonflies in Prince William County, Virginia. After months of photographing birds, often at a great distance, my eyes are gradually readjusting to searching for small subjects at close range. In the springtime I switch to using a macro lens most of the time rather than the long telephoto zoom lens that has been my constant companion throughout the cold, dark days of winter.

I also tend to slow down my pace as I search for tiny insects, scanning for changes in colors and patterns and, most importantly, for movement. In this style of photography, I cannot afford to be in a hurry and often my patience are persistence are rewarded.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Spring wildflowers

Posted in Flowers, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, spring, tagged bluet, Canon 50D, Prince William County VA, Quaker Ladies, Star chickweed, Tamron 180mm, wild violet, wildflower, wildflowers on April 6, 2022| 12 Comments »

For a brief period each spring, tiny wildflowers spring up from the forest floor, giving the forest a magical feel. Some are colorful and some are pure white, but the wildflowers are all beautiful.

I spotted these little flowers on Monday as I was searching for dragonflies in Prince William County, Virginia. I came up empty-handed that day and am still searching for my first dragonfly of the season. However, I had an enjoyable day, covering almost six miles (9.6 km) on hilly trails through the forest.

The first photo shows a bluet (Houstonia caerulea), a species that is sometimes referred to as a “Quaker Lady,” because its shape is reportedly similar to that of the hats once worn regularly by women of the Quaker faith. The flower in the second shot is a Star Chickweed (Stellaria pubera), I believe. The flower in the final photo is probably a wild violet (Viola sororia).

As you can readily see, I got really close to the flowers and used a macro lens. I love the detailed views of their shapes, patterns, and colors and encourage you to click on each image to immerse yourself more deeply in their beauty. In these troubled times, nature continues to serve as a balm to my soul.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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A few more tulips

Posted in Flowers, Gardening, Macro Photography, Photography, spring, tulip, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Canon 60mm, Cindy Dyer, Cindy's garden, Lady Jane tulip, Runnymeade, tulip, tulip "Lady Jane", Tulipa clusiana var. 'Lady Jane' on April 5, 2022| 9 Comments »

As we move deeper into spring, more and more flowers are popping up in the garden of my neighbor, fellow photographer Cindy Dyer. It is a fun adventure to walk over to the garden every few days to see what new bits of beauty have sprung forth out of the earth.

One of my favorites that I look forward to seeing each spring is the Lady Jane tulip (Tulipa clusiana var. ‘Lady Jane’), featured in the first photo below. It is a small tulip with pointed petals and a delicate pink and white coloration.

The red tulips are a bit more traditional in terms of their shape and coloration. I love to explore them from all angles and their bright, cheery color is a joy to behold.

Some more tulip buds are beginning to mature and it looks like there may be yellow tulips next. Spring is such a beautiful season.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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More ospreys

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Canon 50D, channel marker, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, Osprey, osprey nest, Pandion haliaetus, Tamron 150-600mm, Woodbridge VA on April 4, 2022| 2 Comments »

Ospreys (Pandion haliaetus) were really vocal and active last week at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Most often, though, the ospreys were flying out of range of my lenses, so getting shots of them was a bit of a challenge.

Eventually I manage to get a shot of some perched ospreys. In the first and third photos, the osprey appeared to have a fish that it kept hidden from me. Perhaps it had had a recent experience with an eagle trying to steal its catch and consequently was hyper-possessive now. I think that attitude also explains why the bird was in a defensive, crouched position and would look around before taking a bite of the unseen fish.

The middle photo shows an osprey on a nest that is being constructed on a channel marker in the waters off of the wildlife refuge. In the past,I have photographed much larger nests on this same buoy—check out my blog posting entitle Defying gravity from last year to see a photo of a previous iteration of a nest at this spot.

In the last few days some local photographers have posted photos of warblers at this wildlife refuge, so I will be looking for small birds as well as the larger, more visible ones like these ospreys. Insect activity is beginning to pick up too, so it looks like April will be a busy time for me and my camera.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Lily pads in April

Posted in abstract, Flowers, Landscape, Nature, Photography, spring, Water Lilies, tagged Canon 50D, Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens, lily pad, lily pads, Tamron 180mm, Washington D.C., water lilies on April 3, 2022| 12 Comments »

I love water lilies and one of my favorite places to see them is Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens, a National Park Service site located in the northeastern corner of Washington, D.C. My photography mentor Cindy Dyer photographed water lilies there that were featured in 2015 on US Postal Service stamps and I helped her during a presentation she did at the special dedication ceremony for the postage stamps—check out Cindy’s blog posting entitled Special dedication ceremony for Water Lilies Forever Stamps for additional information.

Yesterday I traveled with Cindy to Kenilworth Gardens to drop off some matted prints for the gift store and it was fascinating to see the aquatic gardens in the off-season. It is much too early for water lilies to be blooming, but I could see lots of lily pads floating on the surface of the small ponds.

The lily pads were mostly colored in shades of rust and orange and I was able to capture some “artsy” shots of them. Obviously there photos are different from my more typical wildlife shots, but I like mixing it up and challenging myself to photograph different subjects. It forces me to stretch myself creatively outside of my comfort zone, which I believe is a good thing.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Wings spread wide

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Bald Eagle, birds in flight, Canon 50D, Haliaeetus leucocephalus, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, Tamron 150-600mm, Woodbridge VA on April 2, 2022| 4 Comments »

I love seeing the differences between juvenile and adult Bald Eagles—the coloration and markings of the eagles change dramatically over time. Earlier this week I did a posting called Two eagles that showed two juvenile eagles perched in a tree. One of them was quite young and the other was almost an adult. It was really easy to see the differences between the two stages of development, with only the older one showing the distinctive white head feathers.

Today I am featuring in-flight photos of two eagles that I spotted last Monday while exploring Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. The first photo shows a juvenile Bald Eagle that looks to be about two to three years old. The head appears to be dark and the there is a mottled mixture of white and brown feathers. The second image shows a mature Bald Eagle with a white head and uniformly dark feathers.

It is an awesome experience for me when eagles fly almost directly over me and I love trying to get shots of them. I never fail to be impressed by their amazing wingspans, which can reach more than seven feet (213 cm).

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Comical osprey

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Canon 50D, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, Osprey, Pandion haliaetus, Tamron 150-600mm, Woodbridge VA on April 1, 2022| 12 Comments »

Most of the times when I photograph an Osprey (Pandion haliaetus), the bird appears to be long and lanky. The angle at which I photographed this osprey, however, distorted its proportions, making it seem more short and squat than normal. The spherical head and the osprey’s exaggerated expression of curiosity and surprise help to make this image feel comical and cartoonish—I can’t help but smile every time that I look at the photo.

There are quite a few ospreys now at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge and quite soon they will be working on their nests. I hope to be able to capture some shots of that activity. Now that we have moved into April, I will start to switch some of my focus to searching for dragonflies. With a bit of luck, I will see my first dragonflies of the year with a week or two.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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