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Archive for the ‘wildlife’ Category

Anything but common

Posted in Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, tagged , , , , on June 25, 2014| 2 Comments »

A few days after I stumbled upon a Common Sanddragon dragonfly, a new species for my favorite marshland park, I returned to the remote location with fellow photographer and local dragonfly expert Walter Sanford (who made the initial identification for me). Walter has a science background and his posting today of our encounter with the Sanddragons is full of fascinating scientific information as well as awesome photos of these beautiful little dragonflies. Be sure to check out his complete posting.

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Common Sanddragon dragonflies (Progomphus obscurus) are anything but common.

Despite its name, this species is rare in Northern Virginia. Source Credit: Common Sanddragon, Dragonflies of Northern Virginia, by Kevin Munroe, Park Manager, Huntley Meadows Park.

Kevin goes on to cite Bull Run and Goose Creek, two streams where he has seen Common Sanddragons, and speculates they may be found at two other locations in Northern Virginia. Well, you can add a third location where sanddragons have been seen and it’s right in Kevin’s wheelhouse!

Mike Powell, a fellow amateur wildlife photographer and blogger, photographed a clubtail dragonfly at Huntley Meadows Park on 17 June 2014 that he was unable to identify. Mike’s description of the habitat where he saw the dragonfly piqued my curiosity, so I asked him to send me a photo of the unknown dragon. Turns out Mike discovered a Common Sanddragon —…

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Female Spangled Skimmer

Posted in Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on June 25, 2014| 6 Comments »

Female dragonflies are often less colorful and visible than their male counterparts, but are equally beautiful.

A week ago, I did a posting featuring the dark blue male Spangled Skimmer dragonfly (Libellula cyanea) and noted that the white stigma (markings) on the wings help in identifying this species. In today’s image, a female Spangled Skimmer appears to be a natural model as she smiles and poses for the camera

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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New dragonfly species in the park

Posted in Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on June 23, 2014| 16 Comments »

Last week I added the Common Sanddragon dragonfly (Progomphus obscurus) to the species list at Huntley Meadows Park, the marsh where I spend a lot of time walking and photographing. The park keeps a comprehensive list of species and it appears that this particular dragonfly had never before been observed and photographed within the park.

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I came across this dragonfly, which I recognized as some kind of clubtail, when I was hiking through a back area of the park. I was struck by the way the dragonfly was patrolling a small sandy stretch of a creek and kept returning to perches on that little beach. I took quite a few photos of the dragonfly, though I really wasn’t sure of its identity.

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The images would have remained unviewed on my computer for several days, but I mentioned my discovery to fellow blogger and photographer, Walter Sanford, who seemed to sense that I had captured something a bit out of the ordinary. He insisted that I send him a couple of images immediately, which I did. Walter tentatively identified the dragonfly as a Common Sanddragon and confirmed the identification with Kevin Munroe, who manages Huntley Meadows Park and is a dragonfly expert.

Kevin has a wonderful website, Dragonflies of Northern Virginia, that is full of fun and useful information about dragonflies in our area. In the section about Common Sanddragons, he notes, “Despite its name, this species is rare in Northern VA. In other parts of the country, where clean, sunny, shallow creeks with plenty of sandy/gravely banks are common, so too are Common Sanddragons. Our urban waterways are too influenced by stormwater, flowing fast and unchecked off impervious surfaces (roads, parking lots, roofs, etc.). This creates deeply incised, eroded banks and streambeds with excess silt, unstable flows.”

As a kind of experiment, I angled a couple of sticks in the sand to see if I could get one of them to perch on the stick. Although they kept returning primarily to the sand, a couple of times one perched on the stick and I got this shot.

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You may have noticed the raised tail in several of the shots. In other dragonflies, the “obelisk” position is a method of thermoregulation, but I am not sure if this is the case here—it might be related to efforts to attract a mate.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

 

 

 

 

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Unicorn Clubtail

Posted in Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on June 21, 2014| 5 Comments »

Do you believe in unicorns? I spent part of yesterday chasing a flying unicorn, although it was the Unicorn Clubtail dragonfly (Arigomphus villosipes), not the one that looks like a horse.

Normally Unicorn Clubtails like to perch on flat surfaces, but this one chose to perch on a dead branch overlooking the muddy stream, allowing me to get a good look at it and a decent photograph.

Many people seem to like unicorns and rainbows. Now that I have captured a unicorn, I’m on the lookout for a rainbow–and it looks like it may rain later today.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

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Slaty Skimmer dragonfly

Posted in Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on June 20, 2014| 11 Comments »

It’s prime season now for dragonflies and there are lots of them flying about. Some are brightly colored and gaudy, while others, like this Slaty Skimmer (Libellula incesta) that I encountered Tuesday at Huntley Meadows Park, have a more subdued and refined beauty.

I have been experimenting a bit with lenses and with camera settings as I chase after dragonflies. Although I often use my macro lens for this kind of shot, I took this one at 270mm of my 70-300mm telephoto zoom. I have been told that most telephoto lenses are a little soft at their extreme ends, so I pulled back a little from 300mm. Similarly, I shot this at f/10 to try to get a balance between sharpness and depth of field, while keeping the shutter speed high enough for me to easily handhold the camera.

Most of the time I use evaluative metering on my camera, but for most of my shots on Tuesday, I had the camera set for spot metering. In doing so, I realized quickly that I had to pay a lot more attention to the precise spot on which I was focusing, because that was going to play a disproportionate role in determining the exposure.

I realize, of course, that a lot of the choices will be situationally dependent, but it’s fun and instructive to try out new settings and combinations of settings in trying to improve the quality of my images. (Click on the image to see a higher resolution view of this dragonfly.)

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Common Baskettail dragonfly

Posted in Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on June 19, 2014| 8 Comments »

A few weeks ago, I did a posting with some close-up images of a Common Baskettail dragonfly (Epitheca cynosura), but one of my fellow photographers keeps reminding me that I have not posted any shots of the entire dragonfly, which it turns out is not all that common in our local marshland park.

This small collection of images highlights some of the notable features of the Common Baskettail dragonfly, including its beautiful blue eyes and unusual tail. I took these photographs a month ago (on 19 May), but I have fallen a bit behind on viewing and processing my shots.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

 

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Great Spangled Fritillary

Posted in Art, Butterflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on June 18, 2014| 11 Comments »

After a week and a half on the road, it was great for me to be able to return to my local marshland yesterday. I was thrilled to see that butterflies have reappeared, including Great Spangled Fritillary butterflies (Speyeria cybele). A group of about a half dozen or so of them kept returning to clusters of a pink-flowered plant that looks like a kind of milkweed, permitting me to get shots of the butterflies in various positions on the flowers.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Spangled Skimmer dragonfly

Posted in Dragonflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, Portraits, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on June 17, 2014| 13 Comments »

This dragonfly has such distinctive markings that I should have been able to identify it easily, but I had never seen one like it before, so I didn’t know what it was.

Fortunately, a short time later that day I ran into local dragonfly expert and fellow blogger Walter Sanford, who informed me that it was a Spangled Skimmer dragonfly (Libellula cyanea). Spangled Skimmers have black and white stigmas on their wings, which makes them unique among dragonflies in my part of Northern Virginia. As you may be able to guess from my images, Spangled Skimmers are among the species of dragonflies that like to perch, which makes it easier to photograph them—if you can find them.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Cracking the shell—another technique

Posted in Birds, Humor, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on June 16, 2014| 10 Comments »

If I want to eat a lobster, I need lots of tools (and a bib). This Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) at my local marsh had to try a different technique and seemed to be trying to crack the crayfish’s shell with its bill (or was hoping the crayfish would simply crawl down its throat).

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Cracking the shell

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on June 16, 2014| 6 Comments »

Getting to the tastiest parts of crabs and lobsters is an awful lot of work, even when you have the proper implements.  Imagine how tough it was for this Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) to figure out what to do with this crayfish that it caught at my local marsh.

Great Blue Herons generally swallow the frogs and fish that they catch after just a few adjustments to get it to slide down the throat, but the heron seemed to spend a long time with this catch, moving it back and forth in its bill. I was a bit too far away to tell if the heron eventually swallowed the crayfish whole or somehow was able to crack the shell. In either case, I’m impressed with the digestive system of this beautiful bird.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Colorful spider

Posted in Arachnids, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , , on June 10, 2014| 8 Comments »

One of my fellow photographers excitedly pointed out a small spiderweb to me as I was preparing to leave my local marsh and I moved closer to investigate. At the center of the web was a small colorful spider of a type which I had seen before, but had never identified. I realized that I must have a peculiar reputation when others start to get excited about spiders on my behalf.

I felt obliged to take some photos, given that my friend had gone to the trouble of spotting the spider for me, but I didn’t have any great expectations that they would turn out well. The spider was small and the angle of the web made it a little tough to keep everything on a single plane (and I was handholding the shot at close range).

I really admire the artistry of spiders and their webs, however, and have not seen many this spring, so I took quite a few images and was pleasantly surprised with the result. The spider probably is an Orchard Orbweaver spider (Leucauge venusta) or possibly the similar Leucauge argyra. As you may note, this is a kind of long-jawed spider with legs of differing lengths. It is an ongoing mystery to me how the spider is able to weave an intricate, symmetrical web with such asymmetrical appendages.

Out of all of the subjects that I photograph, spiders tend to be the most polarizing—readers tend to find spider images to be either creepy or beautiful. I hope that the majority of readers will view this colorful little spider as beautiful.

 

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Robber fly

Posted in Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, tagged , , , , , on June 9, 2014| 14 Comments »

As I was getting ready to leave my local marshland park on Friday, I spotted what I thought was a small dragonfly. Upon closer examination, it turned out to be a robber fly, subduing a captured prey.

There are a lot of varieties of robber flies in the Asilidae family and I am not sure which kind this is, but robber flies have a reputation for being really vicious predators.

Wikipedia describes their hunting method in these words, “The fly attacks its prey by stabbing it with its short, strong proboscis injecting the victim with saliva containing neurotoxic and proteolytic enzymes which very rapidly paralyze the victim and soon digest the insides; the fly then sucks the liquefied material through the proboscis.”

I guess we can all be thankful that robber flies are not big enough to hunt humans—except perhaps in science fiction movies.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Now, Dasher…

Posted in Art, Christmas, Dragonflies, Humor, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Portraits, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on June 8, 2014| 6 Comments »

What do you think about when you hear the word “dasher?”  From my early childhood days, the word meant only one thing—it was the name of one of Santa’s reindeer.

Many of us grew up hearing these familiar words from the poem “Twas the Night Before Christmas” (“A Visit From St. Nicholas“) by Clement Clarke Moore:

More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,

And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;

“Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!

On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen!

To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!

Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!”

So, every time I see a Blue Dasher dragonfly (Pachydiplax longipennis), like this beautiful male that I photographed this weekend, I can’t help but have a little thought of Christmas, even on the hottest days of summer.

But Santa, some may complain, didn’t have a blue Dasher. That’s true, of course, but Elvis had no problem singing of a Blue Christmas, the perfect setting for a Blue Dasher. (Click here to watch a You Tube video of Elvis singing this signature tune.)

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Daddy’s watching you

Posted in Arachnids, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Portraits, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on June 7, 2014| 16 Comments »

Daddy longlegs have a single pair of eyes, oriented sideways, in the middle of their heads and it’s a little disconcerting to peer through a macro lens and see one of these eyes looking toward you. Daddy longlegs (also known as harvestmen) belong to the arachnid family, but are not spiders. Harvestmen make up the order Opiliones and, according to Wikipedia, there may be as many as ten thousand species of harvestmen worldwide, with over 6500 already discovered.

I cropped the first shot of the harvestman to allow you to see the eyes better, but it doesn’t really give you a sense of the length of the legs. The second shot, which is actually a less-cropped version of the first one, shows you more of the legs. I did crop out the ends of the outermost legs, though, to keep the body from looking too small.

 

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Dragonfly up close

Posted in Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on June 6, 2014| 8 Comments »

Have you ever looked really closely at a dragonfly? I expected to be able to see its beautiful colors, but I was a little surprise to see how many little hairs were present on the face and body of this Common Baskettail dragonfly (Epitheca cynosura) that I encountered in mid-May at my local marsh.

I was standing in one of my favorite spots, at the edge of a beaver pond, when this dragonfly flew in and perched a few feet away from me. I don’t know if it was resting or napping or simply didn’t mind my presence, but it allowed me to get amazingly close to it. I was able to take quite a few shots of it and even was able to set up my tripod (although there was so much underbrush that it was tough to get a really stable base).

As you can see from the first shot, depth of field was an issue for me when I moved in this close and I didn’t manage to keep all of the legs in focus. I took the second shot from a bit further back and more of the dragonfly is in focus.

Want a new view on life? Try looking at the world through a macro lens and you’ll see some amazing things.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Skink

Posted in Humor, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Portraits, Reptiles, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , on June 5, 2014| 10 Comments »

Is it just me, or does the word “skink” sound funny to you? Certain words simply sound odd to me and for some reason “skink” is one of them—I can’t help but smile whenever I say the word out loud.

Recently I took this shot of a Common Five-lined Skink (Plestiodon fasciatus, formerly Eumeces fasciatus) at my local marshland park. It was sunning itself on a rotten log and didn’t detect my presence immediately and run away, which is what usually happens when I spot a skink. It seems to have its head cocked a little and has a smile on its face, as though daydreaming, as I do when sunbathing.

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I wonder if you could use “skink” as a verb to describe the crawling-type behavior typical of a skink, as in, “I saw my friend skinking about.” If “skink” were a verb, would it follow the model of “drink,” with verbal forms that included “skank” and “skunk?”  That might induce a bit of confusion, I suppose, since “skank” suggests a different kind of behavior, as does “skunk.” English can be a strange language.

I’ll just continue smiling.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Adulthood

Posted in Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , , on June 4, 2014| 6 Comments »

Yesterday I wrote of a male Eastern Pondhawk dragonfly (Erythemis simplicicollis) transitioning to adulthood, but I realized this morning that not all viewers know what an adult male pondhawk looks like.

This first shot shows an adult male Eastern Pondhawk perched above a big mass of algae, duckweed, and other “stuff” at a small pond at a local garden. Originally I was frustrated when the dragonfly flew into this mess and did not perch above the cleaner water of the pond. I wasn’t sure if I could get a clear shot with all of the clutter, but was pleasantly surprised with the result. I actually like the bubbles in the foreground and the texture and visual interest that it adds to the shot.

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I took the second shot in a totally different environment, at the edge of a field. It shows the bright green coloration of the Eastern Pondhawk female (and young males). My local dragonfly expert, Walter Sanford, keeps reminding me that one of the keys to differentiating the genders is the terminal appendages and I think this one is a female.

pondhawk2_blogWhen you take the blue from the top photo and the green from the bottom one, you get the color combination of yesterday’s posting. As for me, I find the colors to be exceptionally beautifully individually as well as in combination.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Moving toward adulthood

Posted in Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on June 3, 2014| 8 Comments »

I have always been intrigued by the fact that many male dragonflies start out looking like females and over time acquire their male coloration. It’s a bit of an oversimplification, but male Eastern Pondhawk dragonflies (Erythemis simplicicollis) are blue and females are green. Males of this species initially are green and gradually turn blue. Last weekend I managed to get some shots of a dragonfly who is in midst of this transitional period.

I really like his current two-toned look, but before long he’ll be almost completely blue, (though he will retain the green face.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Too close?

Posted in Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on June 1, 2014| 14 Comments »

As I was observing dragonflies on Friday at Huntley Meadows Park, a female Swamp Darner dragonfly (Epiaeschna heros) decided that the spot right next to me was the perfect place for her to deposit some eggs. She seemed to fly right at me and then veered just slightly to the left and began to arch her back in the way that dragonflies do when ovipositing.

I was really close to this female dragonfly, so close that my 180mm macro lens might actually have been too much lens for the situation. This was an unusual situation for me—I am usually trying to get closer and closer to a subject. As dragonflies go, Swamp Darners are really large, as much as 4 inches (10 cm) in length.

I didn’t dare move back for fear of scaring her away, so I slowly moved my upper body to try to frame the action. These shots show a couple of the different body positions of the dragonfly as she deposits her eggs.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

 

 

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Bee fly

Posted in Flowers, Gardening, Humor, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on May 30, 2014| 6 Comments »

Is it a bee? Is it a fly? It’s a Greater Bee Fly (Bombylius major). What?

This bee fly has to be one of the strangest insects that I have ever seen—it looks like Doctor Frankenstein pieced together an insect from the parts of other insects. Its fuzzy body looks like that of a bee and it has a similar proboscis, though the bee fly’s proboscis seems to be outrageously long. Its long, spindly legs, however, are not bee-like and remind me of certain types of flies. The patterned wings and the way that it hovers are reminiscent of a hummingbird moth, though the bee fly is considerably smaller.

The bee fly is considered to be a bee mimic. Like a bee, it helps pollinate plants when gathering nectar.

I encountered this strange insect when I was examining the little flowers of some allium plants in the garden of my neighbor and fellow photographer and blogger Cindy Dyer. She always has interesting flowers to photograph and I have found an amazing assortment of insects in the garden too.

Greater Bee Fly on allium plant

Greater Bee Fly on allium plant

 

Head-on look at a bee fly

Head-on look at a bee fly

Bee Fly on allium with trellis in background

Bee Fly on allium with trellis in background

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

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Blue Dasher in May

Posted in Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on May 29, 2014| 7 Comments »

This past weekend I finally saw one of my favorite dragonflies, the male Blue Dasher (Pachydiplax longipennis), at Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria, Virginia. The Blue Dasher is bright and colorful and likes to perch on protruding vegetation, thereby providing lots of photographic opportunities.

Now that I have seen my first Blue Dashers, I know for sure that summer is almost here.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Fascinating flies

Posted in Art, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , on May 28, 2014| 7 Comments »

Do you ever find yourself looking at flies? No, I don’t mean looking at them with a fly swatter in your hand and murder in your heart and I don’t mean admiring the beautiful colors of butterflies and dragonflies.

What I have in mind is marveling at the variety of more ordinary flies, discovering the details of their amazing eyes and hairy little bodies. Sometimes you have to move in really close and bend down to their level (and a macro lens helps).

When you do, a whole new world opens up.

Here are a few shots of different flies that I’ve encountered recently.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Spider captures dragonfly—the story

Posted in Arachnids, Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on May 27, 2014| 30 Comments »

As a follow-up to last week’s preview, here is the complete story of my recent encounter with a Bold Jumping Spider (Phidippus audax) and a female Eastern Pondhawk dragonfly (Erythemis simplicicollis). The photos are a bit graphic, particularly for those of us who like dragonflies, but they illustrate the reality of nature that even super predators like dragonflies can easily become prey.

dragon1A_spider_blogAs I was walking at my local marshland park, I spotted a bright green dragonfly perched on the boardwalk and suspected immediately that it was a female Eastern Pondhawk. I moved in slowly to get a shot and was a bit surprised when the dragonfly did not take off when I got close. This is the initial view I had of the dragonfly.

dragon3_spider_blogI looked closely at the dragonfly and noticed that it was lying on its side and appeared to be dead. Wondering what might have caused its demise, I picked up the dragonfly’s body to do some amateur forensic analysis. (I obviously watched to many televisions shows about crime scene investigations.) As I lifted the body toward my eyes, I was shocked to find that a fuzzy black spider was still attached to it. Apparently the spider had been hiding in the gap between the boards as it feasted on the dragonfly.

Somewhat in shock, I dropped the dragonfly back onto the boardwalk and the fall caused the spider to be separated from its prey. Undeterred, it quickly set off to recapture the dragonfly.

dragon4_spider_blogThe spider grabbed the dragonfly in a headlock and began to drag it back toward the gap between the synthetic boards of the boardwalk. It seemed totally oblivious to my presence.dragon6_spider_blog

When it reached the gap, the spider paused for a few seconds, as though considering possibility of dragging the body through the gap.

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The spider decided to give it a try and did its best to pull the body in, starting with the head.

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Despite the spider’s best efforts, however, the dragonfly’s body was simply too big.

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As I left the scene, the spider had again settled down out of sight below the surface of the boardwalk, happily enjoying its meal and presumably hoping that it would not be disturbed again.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Green Heron in the marsh

Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , on May 26, 2014| 8 Comments »

Green Herons (Butorides virescens) are once again hanging out at my local marshland park. Unlike Great Blue Herons (Ardea herodias), which fish while wading in the water, these smaller herons usually wait at water’s edge or on vegetation, which normally makes them tough to spot. This Green Heron, though, decided to perch on a log in plain view, which allowed to take this rather formal looking portrait shot.

 

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Daytime night heron

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, Portraits, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on May 25, 2014| 7 Comments »

Yesterday I decided to take a break from insects and went walking along the biking trail at Cameron Run, a tributary of the Potomac River in Alexandria, Virginia, where I encountered this Black-crowned Night-Heron (Nycticorax nycticorax). As its name suggests, this species is usually most active at night or at dusk, so I was surprised to see one in the middle of the day.

As I was headed down to the water’s edge, I flushed the bird, which took off for some nearby rocks and perched on one of them. I got a couple of shots of the initial action, which gives you an idea of my initial view of the night heron.

In this the first and last shots, I think the heron was scratching an itch, which is a little tough when you are perched one-legged on a pointed rock. Eventually the itch was satisfied and the night heron flew off into the cooler confines of a leafy tree, probably to take a siesta until it was time to fish for dinner.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Swamp Darner dragonfly

Posted in Art, Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Portraits, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on May 24, 2014| 7 Comments »

This might be the most beautiful dragonfly that I have ever photographed, a Swamp Darner (Epiaeschna heros) that I encountered yesterday at Huntley Meadows Park in Alexandria, Virginia. Swamp Darners have gorgeous colors, including incredibly striking blue eyes—be sure to click on the image to get a higher resolution view of the dragonfly.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Painted Skimmer dragonfly

Posted in Art, Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Portraits, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on May 23, 2014| 6 Comments »

My breathing stopped for a moment on Monday when I first caught sight of the colors and patterns of this beautiful dragonfly, a species that I had never seen before.  The dragonfly was flying around near a drainage area just off one of the main trails at my local marshland park. Fortunately for me, the dragonfly landed and I was able to move in pretty close to investigate.

This dragonfly reminded me a little of a Halloween Pennant dragonfly (Celithemis eponina), a gorgeous species with orange veins and brown patches on its wings, but I was pretty certain that this was a different kind of dragonfly. (For comparison, check out my posting on the Halloween Pennant from August 2012 with one of the best photos that I have taken of any dragonfly.)

I am no expert on dragonfly identification, but the wing pattern here is distinctive and I have concluded that this is probably a Painted Skimmer dragonfly (Libellula semifasciata). Not long ago, a friend introduced me to a wonderful resource for dragonflies in my area, a website on Dragonflies of Northern Virginia that is run by Kevin Munroe, the manager of Huntley Meadows Park, the marsh where I take many of my nature photographs, including this one. Here is a link to the portion of that website that covers the Painted Skimmer, including identification features and other fascinating bits of information.

As I maneuvered around composing this shot, I realized how tricky it is to get the proper depth of field for a dragonfly, especially if I want to have the face visible. In this case, the two wings closest to the camera are in focus and the wings farther away are out of focus, along with the background.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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My first butterfly of the spring

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on May 22, 2014| 9 Comments »

I chased this little orange butterfly through the woods for quite some time this past weekend in an effort to get my first butterfly image of the season, a Pearl Crescent butterfly (Phyciodes tharos). It may not be as big and brightly colored as some of the butterflies that I may encounter later in the season, but I find a real beauty in its minimal color palette and intricate design.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Spider captures dragonfly—preview

Posted in Arachnids, Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on May 21, 2014| 13 Comments »

How does a jumping spider, a spider that does not build a web, manage to capture a dragonfly? I don’t know how this Bold Jumping Spider (Phidippus audax) snagged an Eastern Pondhawk dragonfly (Erythemis simplicicollis), but I came upon the two of them after the capture had been completed and managed to snap a series of photographs of the action.

I am still working on the images and plan to do a longer posting, but wanted to give you a sneak preview.

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Mama duck redux

Posted in Art, Birds, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , on May 16, 2014| 8 Comments »

Several weeks after I first spotted a family of Hooded Merganser ducks (Lophodytes cucullatus) at my local marsh, I continue run into this single mother and her adorable ducklings. (Click here to see the original posting.)

The ducks seem to hang out a lot in one flooded, shady area of the marsh that is relatively shallow and doesn’t seem to have the snapping turtles that plagued similar families last year. The light is limited and the ducks start moving as soon as they sense my presence, so getting photos has been a challenge. Here’s a selection of some of my favorite shots to date of this cute little family.

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Mama duck gives a reminder to the ducklings to stay together and follow her.

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Trying to move out, but some of the ducklings want to look back toward me.

Mama duck takes up a rear position to ensure there are no stragglers.

Mama duck takes up a rear position to ensure there are no stragglers.

Grainy close-up shot that shows some of the personality of the ducklings.

Grainy close-up shot that shows some of the personality of the ducklings.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Lessons in patience

Posted in Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Portraits, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , , on May 15, 2014| 11 Comments »

Do you want to learn patience? If so, try photographing dragonflies in flight, those speedy little flyers that patrol the edge of a pond without ever seeming to need a rest.

Several readers commented that I must have lots of patience after they saw the photos of dragonflies and damselflies that I recently posted. Comparatively speaking, however, it is a whole lot easier to photograph these insects when they are perched on a stationary object than when they are in constant motion.

My fellow blogger and photographer, Walter Sanford, a true dragonfly stalker, emphasized to me recently that many of the early spring dragonflies are found only in limited locations for very short periods of time. (Check out his blog for lots of wonderful shots of dragonflies and other wildlife creatures.) I decided to return to Hidden Pond Nature Center, a county-run park in Springfield, Virginia that is only a few miles from where I live. Last year I spotted a few common dragonflies there, and it seemed to be a good place to broaden my search for spring dragonflies.

Sure enough, I caught sight of a few dragonflies, flying low over the surface of the small pond. They seemed to have fairly well defined patrol areas and tended to move about in large, lazy circles. I tried tracking several of them using my camera’s autofocus, but that proved to be impossible, so I switched to manual focusing, which was merely difficult.

I took a few breaks to get some shots of the more cooperative damselflies, but persisted in my quixotic efforts to capture the dragonflies in flight. Over the course of a couple of hours, I managed to fewer than a dozen images that are more or less in focus. I think that my subjects for this shoot might be Common Baskettail dragonflies (Epitheca cynosura), but I’m not very confident in that identification.

My adventures with dragonflies (and wildlife photography in general) continue teach important lessons about the value of patience and persistence.

 

 

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© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

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