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Posts Tagged ‘Enallagma durum’

Damsels in distress

Posted in Arachnids, Autumn, damselfly, Insects, Nature, Photography, spiders, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , on September 18, 2023| 3 Comments »

As we move deeper into September I have been seeing more and more Black and Yellow Garden Orbweaver spiders (Argiope aurantia). These spiders are impressively large and have prominent webs with a distinctive zigzag pattern near the center.

During recent visits to Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, I have seen multiple Big Bluet damselflies (Enallagma durum) that have gotten caught up in the webs of the Argiope spiders. In the first photo the spider is moving in on two damselflies. After immobilizing the prey, the spider will often wrap it in web material, as you can see in the second image.

The final shot shows a hapless damselfly entangled at the edge of a web. I observed the damselfly for a few moments to see if I could detect any signs of movement, with thoughts that I might be able to free it. However, I did not see any movement and suspect that I had arrived too late to rescue this damsel in distress.

Some viewers may object to these kind of graphic images, but for me it is part of the “circle of life” in nature—all creatures have to eat to survive. As I have observed numerous times, today’s predator may well become tomorrow’s prey.

damselfly

damselfly

damselfly

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

 

 

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Big Bluet damselfly

Posted in damselfly, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Summer, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on August 22, 2023| 8 Comments »

Yesterday it was hot and humid and there was an air quality alert because of smoke from the Canadian wildfires. I was therefore not too surprised when I pulled into the parking lot at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge to see that I was the only car there. As I have mentioned previously, I prefer to enjoy nature alone whenever possible, so I was quite pleased that I had the refuge to myself.

It was about midday, so I knew that the birds would not be very active—they tend to be more active in the early morning and later afternoon—but I knew that many insects prefer the warmest periods of the day. I saw quite a few Big Bluet damselflies (Enallagma durum) in the vegetation near the water. As its name suggests, this damselfly is quite large—up to 1.7 inches (43 mm)—and is primarily a coastal species.

This was my favorite shot of the day of a Big Bluet. I like the overall cool tones of the image and the way that the vegetation fades into background, allowing the viewer to focus on the wonderful details of this beautiful Big Bluet.

Big Bluet

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

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Backgrounds

Posted in damselfly, Dragonflies, dragonfly, Insects, Nature, Photography, Summer, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , , on July 20, 2022| 13 Comments »

I try to pay a lot of attention to the background when I am composing a photo. If it is too cluttered, the background can draw attention from the primary subject, but if it is too plain, it can remove all sense of the environment in which the shot was taken. Ideally, the background adds visual interest to an image without being distracting.

For most of my wildlife shots, I have only a very limited control over my physical environment. Birds and insects will choose their perches or their flight paths and I am the one who has to adapt. It is amazing, though, how a slight change in the angle of view can improve an image. Sometimes I am able to improve my shot by moving a little to one side or the other or by shooting a little higher or a little lower.

Camera settings can help a bit too—by making the depth of field more shallow, for example, I can blur out the background. I have to be careful, however, in using this technique, because important parts of my subject to be blurred as well if I do not pay attention to my relationship to my subject. There are a lot of creative choices to make in choosing camera settings. I remember feeling overwhelmed by the number of choices when I first started becoming more intentional in my photography—it is now second nature and I make my choices instinctively, knowing pretty well what the effect will be of changing a setting.

In the first photo, I tried to be sure that the plane of my camera sensor was parallel to the body of the male Slaty Skimmer dragonfly (Libellula incesta), which meant that most of the dragonfly was in focus, while the background was blurry. You can certainly tell that there were branches all around, but the blurry branches, I think, make this image a whole lot more interesting than the traditional “dragonfly on a stick” shot.

The second image shows a Big Bluet damselfly (Enallagma durum) perched on some vegetation. I really like this shot because of the way that the background gradually fades away, unlike in the first image in which there was a sharp distinction between the foreground and the background. I also like the linear nature of the stalks of vegetation and their varying angles.

I took both of these shots using my Tamron 18-400mm lens during a visit to Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge last week. As I mentioned in some other recent posts, I am experimenting with this lens to see if it can serve as an all-in-one lens for those times when I want to travel light, while retaining the capability to photograph a variety of subjects. These two shots proved to me that with this lens I can capture images of some small creatures with a good amount of detail. So far I am quite happy with its performance and I will continue playing around with it to learn about its capabilities and limitations.

Slaty Skimmer

Big Bluet

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

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Big Bluet damselflies

Posted in damselfly, Insects, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on May 27, 2022| 2 Comments »

I am finally starting to see many of the common species of dragonflies and damselflies that will keep me company through the long hot days of the summer. On Monday at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge I spotted my first Big Bluet damselflies (Enallagma durum) of the season, including the mating pair shown in the first photo below. This sidewards heart position, sometimes referred to as the “wheel position,” is quite distinctive and reminds me of something you might see in a Cirque du Soleil production.

American bluets are the largest genus of damselflies in North America and are often the most familiar and numerous damselflies that people see. As the genus name Bluet suggests, most members of this genus have bright blue coloration in various patterns, although I have also photographed Orange Bluets, which sounds like a contradiction in terms.

During the summer, I often see Big Bluets along the trails adjacent to the water at this wildlife refuge. As damselflies go, Big Bluets are comparatively large at 1.3- 1.7 inches (34 – 44 mm) in length. Big Bluets have elongated, arrow-shaped black markings on their abdomens, as  you can see in the second photo below, and this helps in distinguishing them from other bluets.

Damselfly identification is challenging under the best of all circumstances and even in this case, when I was fairly confident about my identification, I sought confirmation in a Facebook dragonfly group.

 

Big Bluet

Big Bluet

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

 

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Damselflies in September

Posted in Autumn, damselfly, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , on September 25, 2021| 5 Comments »

Autumn has officially arrived, but I continue to see damselflies at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, albeit in ever-decreasing numbers. The damselfly in the first photo is a female Familiar Bluet (Enallagma civile) and the one in the second image is a male Big Bluet (Enallagma durum).

I like the way that I was able to capture hints of the changing season in the images, with the reddish autumn tones in the first shot and the gnawed leaf in the second one.

Familiar Bluet

Big Bluet

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Predator 2

Posted in Arachnids, damselfly, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, spiders, Summer, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , , on September 18, 2021| 7 Comments »

Life can be a risky proposition when you are relatively low on the food chain, like a damselfly. Some larger insects may hunt you down while you are flying—see my recent post called Predator that shows an Eastern Pondhawk dragonfly consuming a damselfly. Other creatures may try to trap you and then immobilize you.

Several times this past week during visits to Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge I have encountered Black and Yellow Garden Orbweaver spiders (Argiope aurantia) that had captured a damselfly. I did not see the actual capture, but the spider in the first photo was in the process of wrapping up the damselfly when I spotted.

Spiders can produce variety of types of silk. In cases like this, the silk (known as aciniform silk) comes out in sheets that look like a gauze bandage and the spider spins around the prey as it wraps it up. If you want to get a better look at how the spider emits these sheets of silk, check out a 2014 posting called Wrapping up a meal. If you have every wrapped presents at Christmas time, you know how difficult it is to wrap an irregularly shaped object. The spider has done an amazing job in making a compact package of the long skinny body and wings of the hapless damselfly—I encourage you to click on the image to see the details of the trapped damselfly.

In the case of the second photo, the spider was content to do a looser wrap, which lets us see the damselfly a little better. I think this damselfly and the one in the first photo are Big Bluets (Enallagma durum), though it is difficult to be certain of the identification.

spider

Big Bluet damselfly

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

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Predator

Posted in damselfly, Dragonflies, dragonfly, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , , on September 13, 2021| 18 Comments »

Dragonflies are really fierce predators and will eat almost any insect that they can catch. Some dragonfly species will consume mosquitoes or other small insects while in flight, while others will hunt larger larger insect prey and, if successful, will perch at ground-level in order to enjoy a more leisurely meal.

Although they are not all that big in size, Eastern Pondhawks (Erythemis simplicicollis) are the species that I most often encounter with a large victim, often another dragonfly or a damselfly. I spotted this female Eastern Pondhawk last Wednesday at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge as she was feasting on a hapless Big Bluet damselfly (Enallagma durum).

I apologize if the image is too gruesome for some viewers, but I have grown accustomed to the “circle of life” in nature and recognize that all creatures have to eat. As for today’s predator, the Eastern Pondhawk, she could easily become tomorrow’s prey and be captured by a bird or a larger dragonfly.

Eastern Pondhawk

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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No privacy

Posted in damselfly, Insects, Nature, Photography, Summer, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , on September 2, 2021| 14 Comments »

It is hard to get privacy for some summer loving and rivals may try to interfere when you are a damselfly. That appeared to be the case on Monday at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge for this couple of Big Bluet damselflies (Enallagma durum) that I spotted in flagrante delicto.

Feeling a little bit like a voyeur, I was focusing on the couple when I was unexpectedly photobombed by a second male Big Bluet. As I noted yesterday, it is challenging to capture images of a flying dragonfly and it is even harder to get an in-flight shot of a damselfly. In this case it was a matter of luck and quick reactions, rather than skill, that allowed me to get the photo of the incoming damselfly.

The couple changed their position a bit, but were undeterred by the intruder.  I was happy to capture the sidewards-heart shape that is typical of mating damselflies and even more thrilled with the way that the colorful background turned out in a preview of fall colors.

big bluet

big bluet

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

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Big Bluet in August

Posted in damselfly, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Summer, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on August 31, 2021| 10 Comments »

The number of dragonflies of certain species seems to be dropping as we approach autumn, but there seem to be plenty of Big Bluet damselflies (Enallagma durum) still around at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Their bright blue coloration and relatively large size—about 1.3 – 1.7 inches (34 to 44 mm) in length—makes the Big Bluets easy to spot in the vegetation along a trail that runs parallel to the waters of the bay.

One of the big challenges when photographing dragonflies and damselflies is getting the entire subject in focus—their bodies are long and narrow and are often pointing in a direction that makes it impossible to get sufficient depth of field. This male Big Bluet cooperated by perching in a way that allowed me to photograph him from the side. The damselfly is nicely in focus, while the leafy background is mostly out of focus and does not distract the viewer’s eyes from the primary subject.

Yes, the dragonflies and damselflies are still hanging on in my area. I think I will continue to see and photograph them for at least another month or two before I gradually begin to shift my focus towards birds, which will again become my main focus during the colder months of the year.

Big Bluet

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Portrait of a Big Bluet damselfly

Posted in damselfly, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Portraits, Summer, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 5, 2021| 6 Comments »

I am fond of challenging myself by photographing difficult subjects like tiny spiders and dragonflies in flight. However, I find equal joy in capturing the beauty of more common subjects in simple portraits, like this image of a male Big Bluet damselfly (Enallagma durum) that I spotted on a recent trip to Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge.

Beauty is everywhere.

Big Bluet

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

 

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Mating Big Bluet damselflies

Posted in damselfly, Insects, Nature, Photography, Summer, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on July 17, 2021| 5 Comments »

I spotted this Big Bluet damselfly (Enallagma durum) couple in flagrante delicto on Monday at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Although I could not help but notice the sidewards heart that their bodies form when they are mating, it was the other elements of the scene that really caught my eye. The shapes and shadows of the leaf and its gnawed-away holes all add visual interest and make a perfect backdrop for this little vignette of an intimate moment in the lives of these damselflies.

Big Bluet

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Immature Big Bluet

Posted in damselfly, Nature, Photography, Summer, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on September 7, 2020| 16 Comments »

I spotted this damselfly on 2 September at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Initially I thought it was a male Big Bluet damselfly (Enallagma durum), based on its size and markings, but the colors seemed wrong—all of male Big Bluets that I had previously seen were blue.

In situations like this when my identification is uncertain, I normally post an image on one of several Facebook forums devoted to dragonflies and damselflies. Several experts on one of those  forums determined that this is in fact a Big Bluet, but it is an immature one—as it matures it will turn blue.

I am always learning new things as I take photos. Sometimes it is about camera settings and techniques, but more often it is about the subjects that I photograph, like this immature Big Bluet damselfly.

 

Big Bluet

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Dramatic damselfly

Posted in damselfly, Insects, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , on September 19, 2019| 8 Comments »

I will often shoot the same subjects over and over again. Each photo opportunity offers the possibility of a difference setting, a different pose, and different lighting conditions. I guess that is why I like the excitement and unpredictability of nature photography versus the more controlled environment of studio photography.

Last week I captured this image of a female Big Bluet damselfly (Enallagma durum) at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. The single leaf on which the damselfly is perched makes for a simple composition that helps the subject to stand out, which is really important when the subject is so small. The sunlight helped to create a cool elongated shadow on the leaf that add additional visual interest to the shot. The minimal color palette works well too, I think.

Sometimes it is nice to have a little extra drama in our lives, even if it is only a dramatic damselfly.

 

Big Bluet

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Female Big Bluet damselfly

Posted in damselfly, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Summer, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on September 6, 2019| 5 Comments »

With a name that includes the word “bluet,” you might expect that this female Big Bluet damselfly (Enallagma durum) would be blue, but obviously that is not the case here. There is a blue female variant in this species, but this one appears to be the olive variant.  Damselfly identification is difficult under the best of circumstances, because so many of them share the same colors—only the patterns help you distinguish among them. In this case, size helps a bit too, because Big Bluets are in fact larger than many other damselflies.

As I was exploring Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge a few days, I was fortunate that this damselfly chose to perch at almost eye level on a stalk of Eastern Gamagrass, which let me get a clear shot with the sky in the background.  Most of the time damselflies like this perch lower to the ground in areas with denser vegetation.

Big Bluet

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Liaison dangereuse

Posted in damselfly, Insects, Nature, Photography, Summer, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on August 14, 2019| 13 Comments »

Liaison dangereuse? Living life on the edge? That’s how I would characterize these mating Big Bluet damselflies (Enallagma durum) that I spotted on Monday at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Neither of them was harmed during their “activity,” though those thorns look really menacing.

It is definitely not what I would call “safe sex.”

Big Bluet

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Big Bluet damselflies

Posted in damselfly, Insects, Nature, Photography, Summer, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on August 3, 2019| 3 Comments »

Recently there seems to have been an explosion of Big Bluet damselflies (Enallagma durum) at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. This damselfly species is a coastal species and usually likes brackish water. Not surprisingly I saw them repeatedly yesterday as I walked along a trail near the water’s edge.

I like the first shot a lot, because of the repeated angled lines that provide a nice contrast with the damselfly. The second image shows a mating Big Bluet couple in a position known as the “wheel” that is viewed by many as a sidewards heart. As is usually the case with insects and with birds, the male Big Bluet is the more brightly-colored than his female counterpart.

 

Big Bluet

Big Bluet

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Big Bluet damselfly in September

Posted in damselfly, Dragonflies, dragonfly, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on September 12, 2018| 6 Comments »

It was cool and wet on Monday and clouds covered the entire sky, but I felt an irresistible need to return to the wild after a week in the urban confines of Brussels, Belgium. Many of the trails at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, my recent favorite shooting location, were blocked by standing water and there was not a great abundance of wildlife to be seen.

Most dragonflies prefer warm, sunny weather, so I was not surprised when I did not see many of them. I was happy, though, to see that damselflies were active and I spent quite a bit of time trying to capture images of them. They seemed more skittish than normal and the poor lighting made it tough to keep my shutter speed high enough to keep my images from being blurry.

This is one of my favorite damselfly shots of the day. I was able to isolate the subject, which I believe is a male Big Bluet (Enallagma durum) damselfly, while still including enough of the vegetation to give you a sense of the environment in which I found him.

Big Bluet

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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A literal hunger

Posted in damselfly, Dragonflies, dragonfly, Insects, Macro Photography, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 31, 2018| 10 Comments »

When recently at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge I spotted these two damselflies, which an expert identified as probable Big Bluets (Enallagma durum), I initially thought they were mating. Then I realized that the positions were all wrong and the nibbling on the neck was probably indicative of a literal hunger. Yikes.

As Tina Turner once sang, “What’s love got to do with it?”

damselflies

daamselflies

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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What’s love got to do with it?

Posted in damselfly, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on September 15, 2017| 4 Comments »

At first I thought it was love, but looking closer I realized that Tina Turner was right—what’s love got to do with it. Both the predator and the prey in what appears to be an act of cannibalism look to be Big Bluet damselflies (Enallagma durum), which I spotted this past Sunday at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge.

The pale coloration of the victim suggests to me that it is newly-emerged, a phase referred to as “teneral.” At this stage of development, dragonflies and damselflies are relatively immobile as their bodies and wings are transforming and are particularly vulnerable.

damselfly cannibalism

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Spider and damselfly

Posted in Arachnids, damselfly, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, spiders, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 11, 2017| 4 Comments »

When a Black and Yellow Garden Spider (Argiope aurantia) traps a prey in its web, it often moves so quickly to wrap it up completely that it is difficult to identify the prey. That was not the case with the damselfly that I spotted yesterday at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge as it was being encased in a silken shroud.

The damselfly looks to be a bluet damselfly and if pressed, I’d guess that it might be a Familiar Bluet (Enallagma civile) or possibly a Big Bluet (Enallagma durum). The spider seems to be experiencing the same kind of problem that I encounter when I am trying to wrap an awkwardly-shaped present at Christmas time—it is hard to be neat and tidy, the process uses up lots of wrapping material, and the package always end up irregularly shaped and easy to identify.

spider and damselfly

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Autumn love

Posted in Autumn, Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , , , on September 30, 2015| 15 Comments »

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

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

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

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

mating damselflies

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Damselflies on the Potomac

Posted in Dragonflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 17, 2015| 9 Comments »

When photographing a subject, how important are the surroundings to you? Most of you know that I like close-up shots and often I zoom in or crop to the point where you don’t have a good sense of the environment.

This past weekend, I went for a walk along the Potomac River (on the Virginia side) and observed a lot of damselflies. I had my Tamron 150-600mm lens on my camera and soon realized that I had a problem—even at the minimum focusing distance (approximately 9 feet/2.7 meters), there was no way that I could fill the frame with a damselfly.

Still, I was drawn to the beauty of the damselflies, which I believe are Blue-tipped Dancers (Argia tibialis), and I took quite a few shots of them.

As I reviewed the images on my computer, I realized how much I liked the organic feel of the natural surroundings. In the first shot, there are lots of vines on the surface of the rock on which the damselfly is perched that add texture and visual interest. In the second shot, I love the twist in the vine and the single leaf hanging down.

All in all, the surroundings on these two shots were so interesting that I didn’t feel any desire to crop the images more severely, and the environment has become just as much the subject as the damselfly. It’s probably worth remembering this the next time when I am tempted to move in really close to a subject—I should at least attempt to get some environmental shots too.

UPDATE:  It looks like my initial identification was off—there are lots of blue damselflies and this one more probably is a Big Bluet (Enallagma durum). Thanks to my local odonata expert, Walter Sanford, for the assist.

Blue-tipped Dancer

Blue-tipped Dancer

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