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Archive for the ‘Insects’ Category

Looking for a good angle…

Posted in Dragonflies, dragonfly, Insects, Nature, Photography, Summer, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on June 23, 2025| 7 Comments »

It is hot! It seems that much of Europe and the United States is currently experiencing sweltering heat. Here in Northern Virginia where I live, high temperatures are going to hover around 100 degrees (38 degrees C) each day this week. I might consider going out with my camera when there are heat advisories, but today there are extreme heat advisories and people are advised not to go out in the heat unless absolutely necessary.

This morning I went over my photos from an outing earlier this month and recalled my thought process when I was taking photos of Common Sanddragon dragonflies (Progomphus obscurus). I was trying to frame the shot in a way that showed the dragonfly’s face and body with an interesting background, which was a bit frustrating, because the Sanddragons tended to perch at the edge of the water facing the water.

I changed positions repeatedly and eventually I got the shot that I was imagining in my head. I love how the green of the dragonfly’s eyes matches some of the mossy vegetation and how the yellow and brown body matches the stones. The dragonfly also seems to be looking up at me and smiling, though I suspect that may be my imagination.

Stay cool and hydrated this week if you have to go outside this week!

Common Sanddragon

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Common Sanddragon dragonflies

Posted in Dragonflies, dragonfly, Insects, Nature, Photography, Summer, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on June 21, 2025| 3 Comments »

I spotted these male Common Sanddragon dragonflies(Progomphus obscurus) on 11 June alongside a creek at Wickford Park, a small suburban park in Alexandria, Virginia. As their name suggests, Common Sanddragons prefer sandy beaches over the kinds of vegetation where many other dragonflies most often perch.

The Common Sanddragons were pretty skittish and would fly away as I approached, but would frequently return to “their” beaches a short time later. Most of the time, they would face the water, which made it problematic to get a side shot. However, one perched on a leaf a bit farther from the edge of the water and I was able to capture the first image below, my favorite image of the day.

You may notice that the Common Sanddragons in the photos have their abdomens (their “tails”) raised. I think that may be their normal way of perching or it may be a variation of the obelisk pose used by other species to regulate their body temperature by reducing the amount of their bodies exposed to the direct sunlight.

Common Sanddragon

Common Sanddragon

Common Sanddragon

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Variable Dancer (immature)

Posted in damselfly, Insects, Nature, Photography, Summer, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on June 20, 2025| 6 Comments »

Variable Dancers (Argia fumipennis) are one of my favorite damselflies, as you may have guessed if you have seen the banner page of my blog that features a photo of a gorgeous violet-colored Variable Dancer. Technically there are three subspecies of Variable Dancers, but I think that all of the ones that I see in my area are members of the subspecies Argia fumipennis violacea, the Violet Dancer.

Last week I spotted several male Variable Dancers at Wickford Park in Alexandria, Virginia, as you can see in the second photo below, so I knew that they lived in that habitat. I was a bit confused, though, when I spotted the damselfly in the first photo and initially could not identify it. After poring over my reference guides and searching for the internet, I realized that the damselfly was probably an immature male Variable Dancer. Many immature male dragonflies and damselflies change colors as they mature, but this color change is particularly striking.

Today is the summer solstice for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, officially marking the beginning of summer. (Technically it comes this evening at 10:42 where I live.) Happy Summer to all of you in the north and Happy Winter to those of you in the Southern Hemisphere.

Variable Dancer

Variable Dancer

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Mourning Cloak butterfly

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, spring, Summer, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on June 18, 2025| 7 Comments »

Mourning Cloak butterflies (Nymphalis antiopa) are often one of the first butterflies that I see in early spring, because they overwinter with us as adults in a kind of hibernation. According to Wikipedia, Mourning Cloaks, known in Britain as the Camberwell Beauty, have a lifespan of 11 to 12 months, one of the longest lifespans for any butterfly.

In the springtime, these butterflies mate and I suspect that the butterfly in the photo below that I spotted in early June at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge is part of the “new generation.” I don’t know a whole lot about the entire life cycle of the Mourning Cloak, but from what I have read, their lives include periods of activity followed by long periods of inactivity. During the summer, for example, they enter into a “dormant” stage, known as aestivation that is somewhat similar to hibernation, and then become active again in the autumn.

I love the markings of this beautiful butterfly and was thrilled when it held its wings open for a few seconds and let me see the stunning blue markings on its inner wings that stand out among the mostly subdued colors on its body.

Mourning Cloak butterfly

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Ebony Jewelwing damselfly

Posted in damselfly, Insects, Nature, Photography, spring, Summer, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on June 16, 2025| Leave a Comment »

I spotted my first Ebony Jewelwing damselflies (Calopteryx maculata) of the year last week during a short visit to Wickford Park, a small suburban park with a creek that runs through it. Members of this species have distinctive dark wings and are generally found in shaded streams where the mixed lighting makes it challenging to photograph them.

Female Ebony Jewelwings have small white patches (known as pseudostigmas) on their wings that along with their terminal appendages make them easy to identify. The damselflies in these two photos are both female. I am not sure why the eyes of the damselfly in the first photo are so red in appearance—perhaps it is a result of the angle of the light or maybe it is related to the age of the individual. Whatever the case, the red eyes give the damselfly a devilish look.

Ebony Jewelwing

Ebony Jewelwing

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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First Slaty Skimmer of 2025

Posted in Dragonflies, dragonfly, Insects, Nature, Photography, spring, Summer, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on June 14, 2025| 5 Comments »

On Wednesday I visited Wickford Park, a small suburban park a few miles from where I live that has a creek that flows through it. In the past I have spotted a variety of dragonflies and damselflies at this location and once again I was rewarded with some new sightings.

I was pleasantly surprised to spot a male Slaty Skimmer (Libellula incesta), the first one that I have seen this year. During the summer, Slaty Skimmers are quite common at a number of the locations that I visit. The dark slate blue of the mature males of this species and their brown eyes make this species pretty easy to identify.

I thought about cropping this image closer to give a better look at the dragonfly, but decided that I really liked the twisting vegetation on which the dragonfly was perched and ultimately decided to keep the crop loose. What do you think?

Slaty Skimmer

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Love is in the air

Posted in Dragonflies, dragonfly, Insects, Nature, Photography, spring, Summer, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , on June 13, 2025| 4 Comments »

A dragonfly couple in wheel formation flew by me during a recent visit Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge and landed on some nearby vegetation. This acrobatic position is the one used by most dragonflies for mating—sometimes they will mate while in the air and other times they will “do the deed” while perched.

I am not totally certain but I believe that these dragonflies are Unicorn Clubtails (Arigomphus villosipes), a species that I see from time to time in my area.

Happy Friday the 13th!

Unicorn Clubtail

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

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Powdered Dancer damselfly

Posted in damselfly, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, spring, Summer, Winter, tagged , , , , , , on June 12, 2025| 5 Comments »

Most of the time that I see damselflies, they are perched in the vegetation. Powdered Dancer damselflies (Argia moesta), like this one that I spotted last week at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, however, like to perch on bare ground, emergent stones, and along trails. Immature male Powdered Dancers are tan to dark brown, turn darker with age, and becoming almost completely whitish at maturity.

The “powdered” color of this damselfly helped in to blend in almost perfectly with the sand and gravel on this trail at the wildlife refuge. If I had not seen it land, I suspect that I would have had real trouble spotting this Powdered Dancer damselfly.

Powdered Dancer

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Reaching for nectar

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, spring, Summer, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on June 11, 2025| 6 Comments »

This Zebra Swallowtail butterfly (Eurytides marcellus) had its wings fully extended as it reached for nectar from an unidentified plant last week at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. I love the way that the photo below shows the butterfly’s long “tails” that appear to be fully intact, making me wonder if this butterfly had recently emerged.

In my area of Northern Virginia Zebra Swallow tails tend to have at least two broods a year. According to the local Prince William Conservation Alliance, “The summer generation is larger and has proportionally wider stripes and longer tails than the spring generation.”

Zebra Swallowtail

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

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Black Saddlebags dragonfly

Posted in Dragonflies, dragonfly, Insects, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on June 7, 2025| 4 Comments »

I tracked this Black Saddlebags dragonfly (Tramea lacerata) in the air for quite some time on 2 June at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge until it finally landed and I was able to capture this shot of it perching in the vegetation.

Black Saddlebags are among the few North American dragonfly species that undertake migrations. Specifically, the offspring of the Black Saddlebag dragonflies migrate south in the fall, while some return north in the spring to breed. It’s impossible for me to know if the dragonfly in this photo started its journey somewhere to the south, but that is certainly a possibility. 

One thing I do know for sure is that Black Saddlebags spend a lot of their time in the air, patrolling back and forth over an area. Most of the time when I spot them, they are flying, so it was nice to have a chance to capture a shot of one on the ground.

Black Saddlebags

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Blue-faced Meadowhawk (immature male)

Posted in Dragonflies, dragonfly, Insects, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on June 6, 2025| Leave a Comment »

I was really surprised to spot this immature Blue-faced Meadowhawk dragonfly (Sympetrum ambiguum) on Monday at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. In the past I have seen this species only in late summer and early autumn and by the bodies of those dragonflies have always been red in color and the face has had a distinctive blue tinge.

This dragonfly appears to have only recently emerged and that is its the body is tan rather than red—the color will change as he matures. The stripes on the abdomen and the eye color, though, helped me to identify it as a Blue-faced Meadowhawk rather than the somewhat similar Autumn Meadowhawk that has brown eyes.

I was curious to understand why I happened to spot this species a lot earlier than usual and have heard some other dragonfly enthusiasts speculate that the immature Blue-faced Meadowhawks “hide” in the woods and make an appearance only later in the season. One of the experts in Virginia Odonata Facebook group to which I belong noted that “They appear to have two different emergence periods, one in spring and one in late summer/fall.”

Whatever the reason for the early appearance, I was delighted to see and photograph this Blue-faced Meadowhawk, one of my favorite dragonfly species. A few long-time subscribers may recall that I was awarded second place almost ten years ago in a local photography contest for a macro close-up of a Blue-faced Meadowhawk. If you are interested in learning more about that experience and seeing the “award winning” image, check out my blog posting from December 2015 entitled “Second place in local photo contest.”

Blue-faced Meadowhawk

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Female Widow Skimmer

Posted in Dragonflies, dragonfly, Insects, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on June 5, 2025| 1 Comment »

On Monday I spotted this female Widow Skimmer dragonfly (Libellula luctuosa), my first one of 2025, during a visit to Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Widow Skimmers have very distinctive dark patches on their wings that reminded the scientist who named them of the dark mourning crepe worn by Victorian-era widows during their initial stages of mourning and even their Latin name “luctuosa” means “sorrowful.”

The weather in my area has warmed considerably this week and already it feels like summer. Gradually the summer dragonflies, like this Widow Skimmer, are starting to appear. The hot days of summer are a bit uncomfortable for me, but seem to be preferred by many dragonfly species.

 

Widow Skimmer

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

 

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Big Bluet damselfly

Posted in damselfly, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on June 4, 2025| 8 Comments »

When I spotted these damselflies last week I was not sure what species they were. Most of the damselflies that I had seen near this location at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge in the past were Big Bluet damselflies (Enallagma durum), but the coloration of this one was different enough that I was not confident in identifying it. I posted a photo in a Facebook group that specializes in dragonflies and damselflies and one of the experts there confirmed that this is in fact a Big Bluet.

I am happy to identify this species, but I must confess that I am even more happy with the images that I was able to capture. For all three images, I believe, I had to focus manually as I tried to compose the images, which can be a real challenge with a digital camera. When I first started taking photos back in the pre-digital age, I remember that my single-lens reflex film camera had a split prism area that you had to adjust and you knew that the subject was in focus when the two halves of the image aligned.

My telephoto lens was extended fully to 400mm, so I was a pretty good distance from the damselflies when I composed these shots. I particularly like the first image, in which the branch at the top third of the shot gradually falls out of focus, allowing the viewer to focus on the damselfly clinging to the leaf.

Big Bluet

Big Bluet

Big Bluet

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Great Spangled Fritillary butterfly

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on June 3, 2025| 7 Comments »

I was excited last week to see a lot of Great Spangled Fritillary butterflies (Speyeria cybele) that appear to have recently emerged at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Great Spangled Fritillaries are large orange-colored butterflies with dark-colored markings on the inner wings and prominent silvery white spots on the underside of the hind wings, i.e. the “spangles” in the name of the species.

Most of the ones that I saw appeared to be feeding on the trails, as you can see in the two photos below, rather than feeding on the nectar of flowers, as I have typically seen them do in the past. Perhaps they need minerals from the ground when they first emerge or were attempting to drink water from the damp soil.

Great Spangled Fritillary

Great Spangled Fritillary

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

 

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Calico Pennants (male)

Posted in Dragonflies, dragonfly, Insects, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on June 1, 2025| 5 Comments »

This past Friday I was delighted to spot some mature male Calico Pennant dragonflies (Celithemis elisa) at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Earlier this season I had seem some immature male Calico Pennants who still had yellow bodies. As they mature, male Calico Pennants turn red in a pattern that looks like a column of little hearts, as you can see in the second photo below.

Like other “pennant” dragonfly species, Calico Pennants like to perch precariously on the very tips of vegetation. Even the slightest breeze will cause them to flutter, like pennants in the wind.

You can’t help but notice the beautiful patterning in the wings that makes this species stand out from almost all other dragonfly species. Wow!

I took the first two photos when the dragonflies were perched nearby in the vegetation. Periodically the dragonflies would fly out over the water of a small pond at the wildlife refuge and would perch at the water’s edge. The shoreline was really mucky, so I could not get close to these dragonflies. I was happy, though, to be able to capture the final photo below, an “artsy” minimalist view of a Calico Pennant perched at an almost right angle on a slim blade of vegetation.

Calico Pennant

Calico Pennant

Calico Pennant

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Needham’s Skimmer dragonfly

Posted in Dragonflies, dragonfly, Insects, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on May 31, 2025| 4 Comments »

I was delighted yesterday during a visit to Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge to spot this beautiful female Needham’s Skimmer dragonfly (Libellula needhami), my first of the year. Later in the year, Needham’s Skimmers will become the most frequent dragonfly that I will encounter at this location but the dragonfly in the photo below was the only one that I saw yesterday.

Needham’s Skimmers are quite distinctive in appearance. Mature males are reddish-orange in color and stand out from the males of other species. Females and immature males have a body coloration that is shared with some other species, but the golden yellow veins at the leading edges of their wings distinguishes them from the others.

Needham's Skimmer

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

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Late-season Blue Corporal dragonflies

Posted in Dragonflies, dragonfly, Insects, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on May 27, 2025| 4 Comments »

Blue Corporals (Ladona deplanata) are an early-season dragonfly—they appear in April and are usually gone by the beginning of June. I was therefore happy to spot some Blue Corporals in mid-May during a visit to Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Blue Corporals perches frequently on low flat surfaces, often on the ground, so they are sometimes hard to see when the ground is cluttered, as it often is at this time of the year.

The dragonfly’s “corporal” stripes on his thorax are really visible in the first photos, so I could immediately identify his species. A short time later I was surprised when I saw a Blue Corporal land on a rusty bit of metal sticking out of the water at the edge of a small pond—I haven’t seen Blue Corporals flying over the water very often. I think this might have been a fence post or some kind of marker, because it appeared to be attached to some concrete.

I was absolutely delighted to be able to captures the texture of the rusty metal and the orange-blue complementary colors make this image particularly eye-catching.

Blue Corporal

Blue Corporal

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

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Spangled Skimmer dragonfly

Posted in Dragonflies, dragonfly, Insects, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on May 26, 2025| 2 Comments »

There are quite a few blue dragonflies where I live, so I can’t always rely on color to tell them apart. Fortunately, it is relatively easy to identify a male Spangled Skimmer (Libellula cyanea), because it has a lighter-colored spot beside a black spot on the outer leading edge of each wing—as far as I know, no other dragonfly in our area has multi-colored stigmata, the technical name for those spots.

The stigmata are not there for decoration, but reportedly serve an important role in the flight of dragonflies. I do not really understand the physics of flight, but have read that the stigmata are heavier than the adjoining cells and help to stabilize the vibrations of the wings.

I spotted this male Spangled Skimmer as he was perched in the vegetation at the edge of a small pond at Shrine Mont, an Episcopal Church retreat center, in Orkney Springs, Virginia. Most often I try to get side views of dragonflies in order to get most of the body in focus, but in this case I deliberately tried to focus on the dragonfly’s large, compound eyes, knowing that much of the body would fall out of focus. This allows the viewer’s attention to be drawn immediately to those eyes.

I encourage you to click on the image to get a closer look at the dragonfly’s amazing eyes.

Spangled Skimmer

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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More flying Common Baskettails

Posted in Dragonflies, dragonfly, Insects, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on May 24, 2025| 4 Comments »

I was away in the mountains last weekend at a church retreat at Shrine Mont, and Episcopal retreat center in Orkney Springs, Virginia. We had a wonderful time of rest, relaxation, and rejuvenation in a really beautiful setting.

There was a small pond at the site where I spotted a number of dragonflies, including some Common Baskettails (Epitheca cynosura) that were patrolling back and forth over the surface of the water. I felt compelled to try to capture images of these dragonflies and had a modest amount of success, as you can see in the photos below. I ended up focusing manually most of the time, because the backgrounds were often cluttered and the focus system had trouble acquiring the dragonflies.

I really like the way that this little series shows the varied backgrounds at the pond. I was also quite happy to focus well enough on the dragonflies that the backgrounds were blurred and non-distracting. In case you are curious, these Common Baskettails were relatively cooperative, hovering a bit over the water and allowing me time to focus on them.

Common Baskettail

Common Baskettail

Common Baskettail

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Honey Bee and False Indigo

Posted in Bees, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , on May 16, 2025| 2 Comments »

The colors of the False Indigo Bushes (Amorpha fruticosa) were spectacular on Monday at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, attracting my attention as well as that of an energetic honey bee (g. Apis) whose pollen sacs were already filled to bulging. I was initially paying so much attention to focusing on the moving bee that I did not realize that my shutter speed had dropped to 1/400—I was in aperture priority mode. The first photo was a “happy accident: in which the bee’s face was in focus, but its rapidly-moving wings were a blur.

In the second shot, the bee had landed and was crawling all around the stalks of the false indigo bush. I am really happy with my snapshot of that action that captured the color and movement of my brief encounter with the honey bee.

honey bee and false indigo bush

honey bee and false indigo bush

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Calico Pennant dragonflies

Posted in Dragonflies, dragonfly, Insects, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on May 15, 2025| 4 Comments »

Later in the season I can rely on coloration to distinguish between male and female Calico Pennant  dragonflies (Celithemis elisa)—the bodies of males are red and those of females are yellow. When they first emerge, however, immature males are yellow, so you have to look really closely at a given individual to determine its gender.

The terminal appendages of the dragonfly in the second photo indicate to me that it is a male, despite the fact that its body is yellow. The one in the first photo is also an immature male Calico Pennant dragonfly that is just beginning to change from yellow to red. I love the way that he is perched on the very tip of the flimsy vegetation stalk, holding tightly to it with all of his little legs.

I spotted these two dragonflies on 12 May at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, my first sightings of this colorful dragonfly species of the year. There is something really special about the patterned wings of both genders of Calico Pennants and when viewed from the right angle, as in the second photo, the pattern on their bodies look like a series of hearts.

Calico Pennant

Calico Pennant

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Big Bluet damselfly (female)

Posted in damselfly, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on May 14, 2025| Leave a Comment »

During a visit on Monday to Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, I noted that many of the summer dragonfly and damselflies are starting to appear. I was particularly delighted to spot several Big Bluet damselflies (Enallagma durum). As their name suggests, Big Bluets are relatively large damselflies, with an overall length of about 1.7 inches (43 mm).

Big Bluets tend to active and a bit skittish, so it’s a bit tough to get a decent shot of one, especially when I am shooting with a zoom lens. The auto-focus of my Tamron 18-400mm zoom often has trouble focusing on a damselfly, because their bodies are so thin and they clasp their wings together over their bodies. Consequently, I frequently end up focusing manually and it is an advantage with this lens that the minimum focusing distance is 17.7 inches (45 cm), so I can get pretty close to my subject.

I was delighted to be able to capture this beautiful image of a female Big Bluet. My focusing was spot on and the background blurred out nicely. If you look closely, you may notice that the depth of field, i.e. what was in focus, was so shallow that much of the stalk of vegetation on which the damselfly was perched was out of focus. In case you are curious, I tried to position myself so that I was on a parallel plane with the damselfly’s body to get as much of it in sharp focus as possible.

One interesting factual tidbits about Female Big Bluets is that, like several other damselfly species, they come in two different color variants. This one is the blue form and there is also an olive form. What that means is that I cannot rely exclusively on the color of the damselfly to determine its species and must also look at other features like the shapes of the eyespots and markings on the terminal appendages.

Big Bluet

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Black Swallowtail in May

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on May 9, 2025| 2 Comments »

Although it is relatively early in the butterfly season, this beautiful Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes) that I spotted on Wednesday at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge was already beginning to show signs of the wear and tear of everyday life, with damage to its wings and body and one missing “tail.” I don’t know what caused the damage to the butterfly’s wings, but suspect that it might have been attacks by predators or collisions with thorns or other sharp vegetation.

Black Swallowtail

Black Swallowtail

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Forktail damselflies

Posted in damselfly, Insects, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on May 8, 2025| 3 Comments »

It has taken a little while, but I am starting to see damselflies during my searches for dragonflies. As many of you know, damselflies and dragonflies are “cousins” in the sense that they are both members of the order Odonata. Generally speaking, dragonflies have thicker, shorter bodies and hold their wings out to the sides when resting, while damselflies are slender with wings often folded together. The eyes of dragonflies often touch each other, while those of damselflies tend to be more widely separated.

The first photo below shows a Fragile Forktail damselfly (Ischnura posita), a very common species where I live. The interrupted shoulder stripes look like exclamation marks, which makes them pretty easy to identify.  The second photo shows what I am pretty certain is a female Eastern Forktail damselfly (Ischnura verticalis). Female damselflies of a number of species are similar in appearance, so I am a bit less confident that I have correctly identified this individual.

More damselflies will continue to appear as I shift my attention almost exclusively from birds to insects. As a result of recent rains, the trees in my area are now covered with leaves, which means that I am increasingly having trouble seeing the birds that I can hear singing.

Fragile Forktail

Eastern Forktail

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Another Stream Cruiser

Posted in Dragonflies, dragonfly, Insects, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on May 6, 2025| Leave a Comment »

How do you capture a shot of a dragonfly perched at an angle on a fallen branch? That was my dilemma last week at Accotink Bay Wildlife Refuge when I caught a view of a flying dragonfly out of the corner of my eye and saw it land.

My first reaction was to stop and then to slowly bring my camera up to my eye to capture a shot before the dragonfly flew away. I was still a good distance away from the dragonfly but thanks to my telephoto lens I could see that it was a Stream Cruiser dragonfly (Didymops transversa). The final photo shows my initial view of the dragonfly. It is a little hard to tell, but the fallen branch was not very far off of the ground.

Stream Cruisers are long and skinny and a little tough to fit into a photo taken in landscape mode. I moved closer to the dragonfly, knelt down, and circled around a bit to capture the middle image. By getting closer to my subject and altering my shooting angle, I was able to blur out the background better. I still was not quite satisfied with the photo, though, because it conveyed the mistaken impression that the cruiser was perching horizontally.

I circled around some more and decided to take some shots in portrait mode. I held my camera at an angle, trying to match the angle at which the dragonfly was perched, in order to have its entire body in focus. This first shot below, one of the last ones I took, was my favorite. The background is blurred and almost all of the details on the cruiser are pretty sharp.

I realize that the image makes it look like the cruiser was hanging perfectly vertically, which was not exactly true, but the image looks pretty natural to me. Wildlife photographers make a whole series of creative choices that help them to create images that reflect their personal vision of  “reality” in front of their cameras, a kind of subjective reality.

One of my favorite quotations about photography comes from noted photographer Dorothea Lange, who said, “The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.” My photos provide some insight into the way that I view the world. Welcome to my world!

Stream Cruiser

Stream Cruiser

Stream Cruiser

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Blue Corporal dragonfly (male)

Posted in Dragonflies, dragonfly, Insects, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on May 5, 2025| Leave a Comment »

I am finally starting to see some male Blue Corporal dragonflies (Ladona deplanata) that are blue in color. In mid-April I started seeing Blue Corporals, but the males that I spotted at that time were all immature, like the one in the second photo below, and shared the coloration of females of the species.

The dragonfly in the first photo is a mature male. I spotted it during a recent hike along a creek in Prince William County. When you compare its feature to those of the immature male, you can see that the adult coloration is definitely bluer and the “shoulder” stripes on its thorax are a bit faded.

I really like the head-on angle that I used to photograph the Blue Corporal in the first photo. Technically only a small portion of the dragonfly is in sharp focus when you shoot from this angle, the eye-to-eye direct contact works well and draws in the viewer. As you can probably tell, I took this from a low angle, which helped to draw attention to the dragonfly’s interesting pose and to separate the subject from the somewhat cluttered background.

Blue Corporal

Blue Corporal

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

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Common Whitetail dragonflies

Posted in Dragonflies, dragonfly, Insects, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on May 4, 2025| 2 Comments »

Common Whitetails (Plathemis lydia) can be found almost everywhere and are among the first dragonflies to appear in the spring and the last to survive in the fall. I nonetheless enjoy trying to capture creative images of them, like these two that I spotted this past week.

How do wildlife photographers choose their subjects? Some of them are attracted almost exclusively to rare and/or exotic species and are always looking for something new to photograph. Their mentality is close to those of many birders, who keep “life lists” of all the birds they have seen and are always lookin got add another one to the “list.”

Other photographers, like me, are content to photograph a more limited selection of subjects over and over again, hoping to capture something new and different, finding the extraordinary in the ordinary. The first photo is one such example—I love the prominent specular highlights in the image and the unusual pose of this female Common Whitetail with one of her legs extended.

At other times, I am simply trying to compose an image creatively, as in the second photo below. There is nothing super special about this shot of a male Common Whitetail, but I tried to add some visual interest by including some of the vegetation at the base of its perch and a portion of the lily pads in the distance. It is not a prize-winner by any standards, but I like the overall “feel” of the pleasant little image.

Female Common Whitetail

Male Common Whitetail

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

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Common Baskettail dragonfly in flight

Posted in Dragonflies, dragonfly, Insects, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on May 1, 2025| 3 Comments »

What is the most difficult subject that you try to photograph? Quite often my biggest concern is the composition of a photograph, i.e. can I capture a shot that will be visually pleasing. Sometimes that means waiting for a particular expression or wing position or moment of action, but if I am patient enough, I have a pretty good chance of getting some decent shots.

Each year, though, I try try to challenge myself to capture some “impossible shots” of dragonflies in flight. Of course, such shots are not actually impossible, but they are really difficult to pull off. Some really high-end modern mirrorless cameras have focusing systems that are so good that they can lock focus on a moving dragonfly, but I mostly use cameras with technology that is over a decade old. Usually I will try to track a dragonfly through the viewfinder of my camera and focus on it manually. It’s a little easier when the dragonfly is flying a somewhat predictable path over the water and ideally hovering a bit.

This past Monday I had my first experience this season with in-flight photography when I spotted several Common Baskettail dragonflies (Epitheca cynosura) patrolling over the water of a small pond at Occoquan Regional Park. I managed to get a decent number of shots in frame, but most of them were out of focus—clearly I am a little rusty and need more practice to regain the necessary hand-to-eye coordination. The first shot below is cropped quite a bit, but is one of my best shots from my little session.

Common Baskettail dragonflies, which are only about 1.6 inches (41 mm) in length, spend a lot of their time in the air, but on that day I was fortunate when one of them decided to take a break and perched for a few moments low in the nearby vegetation. The second and third shots below provide a good side view of this beautiful little dragonfly, including its distinctive terminal appendages (the tip of its “tail”).

It’s a fun challenge for my patience and skills as a photographer to attempt to capture shots of dragonflies in flight and luck certainly plays a big part in achieving any success whatsoever. I can just about guarantee that I will be featuring a few more in-flight dragonfly photos in the upcoming months as the insects and I become more active outdoors.

Common Baskettail

Common Baskettail

Common Baskettail

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

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Perching Swamp Darner dragonfly

Posted in Dragonflies, dragonfly, Insects, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on April 29, 2025| 3 Comments »

Yesterday I decided to visit Occoquan Regional Park in nearby Lorton, Virginia to search for some dragonflies. Some of you know that the place that I visit most frequently is Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, so you may be a little confused, because they both have “Occoquan” in their names. The Wildlife Refuge is run by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, whereas the Regional Park is run by Fairfax County.

The locations are only a few miles apart, but their habitats are different enough that I tend to see some different dragonfly species at each spot. I was hoping to see some Spiketail dragonflies, but came up empty-handed. As I was nearing the end of my adventure, however, a large dragonfly flew overhead. I did not get a very good look at it, but its size, shape, and flight profile suggested to me that it was from the Darner family.

A short while later, I spotted another large dragonfly (possibly the same one) flying around some vegetation and was thrilled when it landed. At the precise moment that it landed, my vision was partially blocked by some branches, but I had a good idea of where I hoped the dragonfly was perched. I moved a few steps slowly and silent to get an unobstructed view of the dragonfly.

I held my breath when I saw that it was a Swamp Darner (Epiaeschna heros), the largest dragonfly in my area at about 3.5 inches (89 mm) in length. Wow! Judging from its terminal appendages (the tip of the “tail”), I am pretty sure that this is a female. I took the second photo below initially, afraid to move closer for fear of spooking the dragonfly.

I then stepped a little closer and moved up and down as I tried to get a better shot. My options were limited, because the dragonfly was perched about 10 feet up (about 3 meters) and was surrounded by intertwined vines and branches. I think that the first shot below is a marginal improvement on my first shot and encourage you to click on it to get a better look at the Swamp Darners beautiful markings, including its spectacular eyes.

I suspect that this park will be in my regular rotation of places to visit as additional dragonfly species continue to emerge.

Swamp Darner

Swamp Darner

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Butterfly in the forest

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on April 27, 2025| 4 Comments »

This Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio glaucus) was sipping from a wet area at the edge of a forest creek (and maybe ingesting other nutrients) when I photographed it on 23 April at Prince William Forest Park in Triangle,Virginia. I used to associate this species of butterfly with gardens, because that is where I tended to spot them in the past. However, over the last few years, I have spent a lot of time in the spring in forested areas and have spotted Eastern Tiger Swallowtails regularly there, both individually and in small groups.
Check out my 2021 posting called “A Kaleidoscope of butterflies” to see a photograph of Eastern Tiger Swallowtails “puddling,” i.e. congregating together on wet sand and mud to drink water and extract minerals from puddles.
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Common Baskettail in late April

Posted in Dragonflies, dragonfly, Insects, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , on April 26, 2025| 3 Comments »

I am not sure that I can say that dragonfly activity is at a peak yet, but I did see a whole lot more dragonflies this past Wednesday in Prince William County than in previous trips there earlier in April.  I was particularly delighted to spot some Common Baskettail dragonflies (Epitheca cynosura) that were perched—quite often I have seen them in the past only when they were flying.

The Common Baskettail in the first photo seems to be a mature male. I love the way that I was able to capture an image that shows the way that it hangs when perching and the distinctive terminal appendages that always remind me of the handles of some pliers that are wrapped in plastic.

The dragonfly in the second photo looks to be a recently emerged Common Baskettail. Its eyes are still pale and its wings are very clear and are probably not fully hardened yet.

I got a late start this year in finding spring dragonflies, but feel that I have more or less caught up as we near the end of April, though there are still some spring species that I have not yet seen.

Common Baskettail

Common Baskettail

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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