Posted in Bugs, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged Canon 50D, Giant Water Bug, Lethocerus americanus, Lorton VA, Meadowood Recreation Area, Tamron 180mm, toe-biter on June 4, 2016| 7 Comments »
Posted in Dragonflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged Canon 50D, Fragile Forktail, Fragile Forktail damselfly, Ischnura posita, Lorton VA, Meadowood Recreation Area, Tamron 180mm on May 23, 2016| 4 Comments »
As I turned to photograph a tiny damselfly perched on an overhanging branch, it flew down to the water. Initially I was disappointed, but then I looked more closely through my camera’s viewfinder. The male Fragile Forktail (Ischnura posita) had landed on a floating leaf and had assumed a pose that made it look like he was riding a surfboard. As a bonus, I was able to capture a fascinating area of bubbles in the algae in the foreground of the image.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Posted in Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, tagged blue-eyed grass, Canon 50D, family Syrphidae, hoverfly, Lorton VA, Meadowood Recreation Area, Sisyrinchium, Tamron 180mm on May 22, 2016| 6 Comments »
While I was hunting for dragonflies the past Friday at Meadowood Recreation Area in Lorton, Virginia, I managed to get this shot of a hoverfly (family Syrphidae) on what I was told was blue-eyed grass (Sisyrinchium) by some folks conducting a wildlife survey.
I had no idea what blue-eyed grass was, so I turned to the internet when I got home. It turns out that blue-eyed grass is not actually a grass, but a perennial plant of the iris family, and sometimes it is not blue. According to Wikipedia, the genus of blue-eyed grasses includes up to 200 species that may have blue, white, yellow, or purple petals.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 