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Posts Tagged ‘Tamron 18-400mm’

Soaring hawk

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , on April 6, 2024| 7 Comments »

Now that we have moved into April, I have begun to really search for dragonflies. On Thursday, I explored a creek in Prince William County, Virginia where I have found early-season dragonflies in past years, but, alas, I was not able to photograph any. However, I am pretty sure that I spotted a dragonfly flying low over the waters of the creek, so I am somewhat optimistic that the dragonfly season for me will soon start. The lighting was not good and the dragonfly was pretty far away, so I am not sure what kind it was, but there are so few insects flying this early in the year that the few that are in the air readily catch my eye.

While I was searching along the edges of the creek, I spotted a hawk soaring overhead and was able to get a few shots of it. I am pretty confident that this is a Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis), judging from the coloration of the tail and the prominent “belly band” of darker feathers.

I was using my versatile Tamron 18-400mm lens, so I did not have the reach of the “normal” lens that I use for birds, i.e. the Tamron 150-600mm telephoto zoom lens. I have to say, though, that I am quite happy with the images that I was able to capture of this beautiful soaring hawk.

Red-tailed Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Wood Anemone

Posted in Flowers, Nature, Photography, spring, tagged , , , , , on March 30, 2024| Leave a Comment »

I’ve been really busy preparing for multiple church services this Holy Week—I help to lead singing during the worship services—so I have not been able to go out as often this week as I would have liked. So today, I am featuring another tiny forest wildflower that I spotted on Monday at Prince William Forest Park.

I think that this one is a Wood Anemone (Anemone quinquefolia), though there is a similar-looking wildflower called a Rue Anemone (Thalictrum thalictroides) and I am not sure how to tell the two of them apart. According to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center website, “Since Anemones are usually slender-stalked and tremble in the breeze, they have been called “Wind Flowers.””

I used to think that all of the white spring wildflowers looked the same but gradually I am beginning to see the differences in the number and shape of the petals and in the different types of stamens. However, I am far from being an expert in plant identification, so you should take all of them with a grain of salt.

Wood Anenome

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

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Bloodroot

Posted in Flowers, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, spring, tagged , , , , , , on March 29, 2024| 3 Comments »

Each time I venture out into the forested trails of Prince William Forest Park at this time of the year I encounter different wildflowers, most of which are present for only a short period of time. This past Monday, for example, I spotted some Bloodroot plants (Sanguinaria canadensis) in bloom, my first of the season. These white flowers are a bit bigger than many of the other wildflowers that I see.

According to the Missouri Botanical Garden website, “Each [bloodroot] flower stalk produces a solitary, 2″ (50 mm) wide, 8-10 petaled, 1.5″ (38 mm) diameter, white flower with numerous yellow center stamens. Flowers open up in sun but close at night, and are very short-lived (1-2 days). Leaves continue to grow in size after bloom (sometimes to as much as 9″ (228 mm) across) and remain attractive until mid to late summer when the plant goes dormant.”

The forest floor was quite cluttered, so I decided to take this photo from directly above the bloodroot flower. I like the way that the shot emphasizes the geometric shape of the petals in an almost abstract way.

bloodroot

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Spring Beauty Miner Bee

Posted in Bees, Flowers, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , on March 28, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Early spring wildflowers, like the Virginia Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica), are an important source of food for a host of small bees and other insects. Many insects gather pollen from these flowers and in doing so help to pollinate the plants. One species, the Spring Beauty Miner Bee (Andrena erigeniae), is so specialized that it reportedly feeds only on this ephemeral flower.

According to the Bug of the Week website that featured this species in an article, “Using jaws and legs the female bees excavates a gallery in the soil, leaving a small pile of dirt near the entrance hole. This gallery can be as long as 15 centimeters and contain numerous lateral brood chambers. During the daytime she forages for pollen on flowers of spring beauties, which apparently are the sole source of food for her brood. Pollen from these blossoms is formed into balls and placed into brood chambers…As brood chambers are built and provisioned with pollen, the bee deposits a single egg on a pollen cake. During spring and early summer developing larvae consume the pollen, and later in summer they will form pupa. By late autumn development of the adult is complete and winter is spent in the adult stage within the brood chambers. Newly minted adults emerge each spring coincident with the appearance of spring beauty’s’ blossoms.” Wow!

On Monday I was fortunate to capture a shot of a Spring Beauty Miner Bee in action gathering pollen. If you look closely at the image, you will see how the tiny bee has collected pollen on its back legs.

Last year I posted an image of a Cuckoo Bee on the same kind of flower. That bee does not collect pollen. Instead it enters the nests of a host and lay eggs there, stealing resources that the host has already collected. From what I understand the cuckoo bee waits for the miner bee to leave its burrow and then lays its egg there. The offspring of the cuckoo bee eats the pollen in the burrow and then eats the larva of the miner bee. Yikes!

Spring Beauty Miner Bee

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

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Tiny Cricket Frog

Posted in Amphibians, frog, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , on March 27, 2024| 1 Comment »

As I was walking along a creek on Monday at Prince William Forest Park, several tiny frogs unexpectedly jumped out of my way. I was able to visually track one of those frogs and saw where it landed. After a single leap, the frog froze in place and I was able to slowly maneuver myself into position to capture this image.

I am pretty sure that this is a Northern Cricket Frog (Acris crepitans). A bit later in the season, I will be able to hear the cricket frog’s distinctive call, which sounds to me like two marbles being clicked together, but the frogs that I encountered that day were silent.

According to the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources, the Northern Cricket Frog is one of the smallest frogs in Virginia, ranging from .87 inches to 1.14 inches (22-29 mm) in length. Their typical life span is four to twelve months, though sometimes they can live as long as three years. Cricket frogs hatch from their eggs in 29-90 days between July and August and metamorphosize into adults in late summer. In early autumn, the frogs burrow into the soil to hibernate until spring comes.

I was quite pleased with the amount of detail that I was able to capture in this image, from the bumpy warts of the frog’s back to the stripes on its tiny toes. My Tamron 18-400mm lens is quite versatile and is capable of providing macro-like capability in certain circumstances. I encourage you to click on this image to get a better look at the tiny cricket frog.

Northern Cricket Frog

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Swallowtail butterfly in March

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on March 26, 2024| 3 Comments »

I went on a pretty long hike yesterday in Prince William Forest Park—just over 18,000 steps (7.1 miles or 11 km) according to my iPhone—and was delighted to spot this beautiful Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio glaucus), my first of the season.

When I first spotted the butterfly, it appeared to be sucking moisture and minerals from the wet soil, as you can see in the first photo. The butterfly flew to a nearby location and resumed its efforts and I was able to maneuver around to get the second image that shows the markings of the butterfly a bit better.

Personally I prefer the first photo that is more dynamic and gives a better sense of the activity of the butterfly. From a purely scientific perspective, the second one might be preferable because it shows more of the butterfly’s identification features. I am more of an artist than a scientist, though, so capturing all of the details with clinical precision is not as important to me.

 

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Hiking in the forest

Posted in Landscape, Nature, Photography, spring, tagged , , , , , on March 19, 2024| 6 Comments »

Most of the time when I go out with my camera, I am focused on taking pictures. I have a general idea of which subjects I want to photograph and choose locations where I am likely to encounter them.

Sometimes, though, I am much less goal-oriented and I will visit a place primarily to experience nature. Oh, I will have my camera with me, but I am likely to take significantly fewer photos and to log a lot more steps in between photos. Usually I will have my Tamron 18-400mm lens on my camera that provides me with the greatest flexibility in capturing both wide-angle and telephoto shots.

That was certainly the case last week when I visited Prince William Forest Park, a wildlife area administered by the National Park Service. I did not see a lot of wildlife and the images that I capture tended to focus on the landscape. The first photo shows you one of the larger trails in the park that is wide enough for a vehicle and is used as an emergency route. Most of the other trails in the park are narrow and winding and accessible only on foot.

The second photos shows one of the dams along Quantico Creek. I really like the step-like shape of this dam. As you can see, some logs have accumulated along the top of the dam. They do not interfere much with the flow of the water, however, so I am not sure if the park authorities will eventually remove them.

My iPhone records my steps and I noticed recently that I tend to log the most steps each year in April, when spring is in full bloom. Last year, for example, I averaged over 6500 steps a day over the entire month of April versus an average step count of about 4000 steps for the whole year. I feel a kind of resurgence in energy in the spring, a sense of new life after the long gray days of winter.

Prince William Forest Park

Prince William Forest Park

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Tiny Red Spider?

Posted in Arachnids, Insects, Nature, Photography, spiders, spring, wildlife, tagged , , , , , on March 18, 2024| 11 Comments »

Our recent warm weather has brought out a whole lot of little creatures. As I was hiking about in Prince William Forest Park last week, I notice a spot of bright red moving about on a rock at the edge of a small creek. When I looked at it more closely, it had a shape that made it look like a tiny red spider.

I did some initial searches when I returned home to see if I could identify the spider. I could not find an exact match, but I think this might be a spider mite (or some kind of mite) rather than an actual spider. If I understand it right, mites and spiders belong to the same family of arachnids, though I might have this wrong.

spider mite

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Solitary turtles

Posted in Nature, Photography, Reptiles, spring, turtle, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , on March 16, 2024| 2 Comments »

When the weather is sunny, turtles at local ponds often bask in the sun in large groups. Sometimes the turtles are packed in so tightly that it looks like a mall parking lot at Christmas time. The turtles seem to have no concept of “personal space and often are leaning against each other.

I spotted a few turtles on Wednesday at Prince William Forest Park and was struck by the fact that all seemed to have chosen solitude over solidarity—they were perched by themselves.

The first one, a small Painted Turtle (Chrysemys picta) was perched on a small log in the shallow part of a marshy area. I really like the limited color palette of this image, made up of mostly earth tone. If you look carefully, though, you can spot a few red markings on the turtle’s neck.

The second turtle, a much larger Painted Turtle, had crawled entirely out of the water and appeared to be napping on dry land. The greenery in this image gives it a much more lively feel than the first image and the bright red markings on the turtle’s neck are much easier to see.

Like these two turtles, I tend to avoid crowds and like to be myself when I am pursuing my photography. Go with the crowd? No, I will leave that to others.

Painted Turtle

Painted Turtle

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Early spring wildflowers

Posted in Flowers, Nature, Photography, spring, tagged , , , , , , , , , on March 15, 2024| 8 Comments »

For a brief period in the spring, the forest floor is carpeted with wildflowers. It is still a little early for most of the wildflowers to appear but on Wednesday I spotted a few early blooming ones during a hike in Prince William Forest Park in Northern Virginia.

The little wild flower in the first photo is the appropriately named Virginia Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica). I love the pops of pink in this flower, especially the stamens. According to Wikipedia, “The individual flowers bloom for three days, although the five stamens on each flower are only active for a single day.” Yikes! I guess the Spring Beauties qualify as being “ephemeral.”

The flower in the second photo is often referred to as a Quaker Lady Bluet (Houstonia caerulea)—it is also known as the Azure Bluet. Later in the spring I am certain to encounter large clusters of this cool little flower, but on this occasion there were only a few of them. I love the simple geometric pattern of the petals that someone decided resembled the traditional hats worn by Quaker ladies.

Virginia Spring Beauty

Quaker Lady Bluet

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Question Mark in March

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on March 14, 2024| 2 Comments »

Yesterday I went on a hike at Prince William Forest Park, the largest protected natural area in the Washington D.C. area at over 13,000 acres (53 square kilometers), that is located about 27 miles (43 km) from my home. Unlike the wildlife refuge that I usually visit, which is on a coastal plain, Prince William Forest Park, as its name suggests, is heavily wooded and it is quite hilly. I love to walk along the many creeks and streams that crisscross the park—the sound of the flowing water always has a therapeutic effect on me.

I was thrilled to spot this beautiful Question Mark butterfly (Polygonia interrogationis) as it perched on some leaves in a marshy area adjacent to one of the creeks. I could not tell for sure, but it looked like this butterfly was sipping water, possibly gathering nutrients from the soil. Question Mark butterflies and their punctuation “cousins,” the Eastern Commas, overwinter as adults, so they are among the earliest appearing butterflies in the spring.

Question Mark and Eastern Comma butterflies are quite similar in appearance. When the wings are fully open, as in the photo below, you can see a brown dash near the top of the upper wings that is not present on the wings of Eastern Comma butterflies.

Question Mark butterfly

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Trees and shadows

Posted in Landscape, Nature, Photography, Winter, tagged , , , , , , on February 12, 2024| 7 Comments »

Most of the photos in my most recent blog postings were captured during my hike last week at Prince William Forest Park, which was a break from my usual wildlife-focused images. It is time to hit the trails again after this brief respite, but I thought I would conclude this mini-series with a final photo from the hike.

Many of you know that I love shadows and I was really struck by the tree shadows falling across the trail during the early stages of the hike. The photo gives you an idea of the size and density of the forest in which I was immersed. This trail was wide enough to serve as an emergency access route, but the majority of the trails that I traversed later in the day were significantly more narrow. The trails were pretty well defined and there were painted blazes on the trees, which were particularly useful when trails crisscrossed each other.

I grew up in New England and memorized a number of poems by Robert Frost. One of his most famous poems is entitled “The Road Not Taken.” Somehow the opening words of that poem always come to mind when I am hiking on forest trails, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry I could not travel both and be one traveler, long I stood and looked down one as far as I could to where it bent in the undergrowth…”

In this case, however, the pictured road is the road that was taken. That day, I stuck to a familiar path, though I am prone to wander and love to explore. Who knows what I might discover beyond the next twist of the road.

trees

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

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Along the creek

Posted in Language, Nature, Photography, Winter, tagged , , , , on February 11, 2024| 3 Comments »

There is something special and soothing about the sound of flowing water. During my hike last week in Prince William Forest Park, I spent much of my time following  Quantico Creek and listening to the different noises that it made as it moved through the varying landscapes.

The terrain I traversed was hilly and the elevation diagram below from my GPS software shows the ups and downs of my hike. From the area where I parked my car I had a rather steep descent to the creek. The first photo was my first view of the creek and gives you an idea of its size. Although the water appears quite still, it was moving towards the dam shown in the second photo that was only a short distance downstream.

To get to the next section of the creek, I had to climb up and over a ridge before beginning a long descent to a series of small cascades, one of which is shown in the penultimate photo. I followed the creek for a while as it continued to flow downhill, gradually flattening out a bit and giving me views like the one in the final photo.

Eventually, I turned around and headed back toward my car, partially retracing my steps and then taking a more direct and steeper route. During the three hours or so that I was on the trails I did not see another person. It is a little selfish, I know, but I prefer not to share my nature experiences with others. I like to proceed at my own pace, stopping whenever I choose, immersing myself in the beauty of nature, reviving and refreshing my soul.

Quantico Creek

Quantico Creek

Quantico Creek

Quantico Creek

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

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Tiny forest birds

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged , , , , , , , , , on February 10, 2024| 1 Comment »

I had low expectations for capturing images of birds when I set out for a hike this past Tuesday at Prince William Forest Park. I knew from past experience that I was unlikely to see very many birds as I walked up and down then hill at the park and alongside the streams. The birds that I was lucky enough to see or hear were likely to be hidden high in the trees, outside of the reach of the lens that I was carrying. Normally I shoot with a 150-600mm lens, but it is a bit heavy to tote around for hours on end and instead I carried my 18-400mm lens, a lighter and more flexible lens that allows me to take wide-angle and telephoto shots.

I did manage to capture a few photos that I am sharing here. The first one shows a Golden-crowned Kinglet (Regulus satrapa), an elusive species that is one of the smallest birds in our area. I tried to track this bird as it moved about and was happy to get a shot when it poked its head between some branches.

A Tufted Titmouse (Baeolophus bicolor) was also playing a combination of hide-and-seek and peekaboo with me. I captured the second photo below when the titmouse poked its head out from behind a tree trunk.

The final photo shows a Carolina Chickadee (Poecile carolinensis) that perched briefly almost directly overhead. This image has the cleanest composition of the three shots, but does not really give you a sense of the environment in which I found the little bird.

Some days it is nice just to commune with nature, to hear the sound of the rustling leaves and the babbling brooks, to observe the light and the shadows. Any photos that I do manage to capture are simply a bonus.

Golden-crowned Kinglet

Tufted Titmouse

Carolina Chickadee

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Crossing the water

Posted in Landscape, Nature, Photography, Winter, tagged , , , , , , , on February 9, 2024| 4 Comments »

Prince William Forest Park is the largest protected natural area in the Washington D.C. metropolitan region  at over 13,000 acres (53 sq km). As its name suggests, it is is a heavily wooded area that is criss-crossed by numerous streams and creeks, most notably Quantico Creek.

There are over 37 miles of hiking trails in the park and this past Tuesday I walked a little over 6 miles (10 km) along some of my favorite trails. I knew that I would not see very much wildlife, but I really wanted to stretch my legs on a beautiful, sunny winter day. Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, where I most frequently go to photograph wildlife, is part of a flat, coastal plain, but Prince William Forest Park is hilly—according to my iPhone I climbed the equivalent of 19 flights of stairs that day.

Some of the trails at Prince William Forest Park get mucky after a rain and I encountered two-board walkways like the ones in the first and last photos below at several spots while wandering about in the park on Tuesday. There were also some small bridges across streams (see second photo) and one larger bridge across Quantico Creek (see third photo). It really enjoyed checking out all of the different means that were in place to assist hikers in crossing wet areas and photographing subjects that are not my “usual” ones.

Prince William Forest Park is administered by the National Park Service and is wonderfully maintained. The trails are kept clear and are well-marked. I visit it most often in the spring, when wild flowers begin to appear on the forest floor and dragonflies start to emerge. If my memory serves me well, the earliest that I have seen dragonflies in my area was around the beginning of April, so I am waiting patiently for that time to come as we move through winter.

bridge

bridge

two-board bridge

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Sparrow in the thorns

Posted in Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, Winter, tagged , , , , , , , on February 8, 2024| 3 Comments »

How do birds decide where they will perch? As I was reviewing my photos from a little hiking trip on Tuesday to Prince William Forest Park, I was shocked to see that a White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis) was perched in some prickly vegetation and was almost literally  surrounded by thorns. I had encountered similar thorns earlier in the day and can attest to the fact that they are sharp.

I could not help but notice how closely the claws on the bird’s tiny feet resembled those thorny protrusions.

White-throated Sparrow

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Photobombed

Posted in Autumn, Nature, Photography, Reptiles, turtle, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , , on November 9, 2023| Leave a Comment »

While I was composing a shot of this turtle at a small pond in Kingstowne, a suburban area only a mile or so from where I live, another turtle popped its head out of the water to photobomb its friend. I am pretty sure that the basking turtle is a Red-eared Slider (Trachemys scripta elegans), though I must admit that turtles are definitely not my speciality when it comes to identifying species.

We are in a transitional time of the year—we have already had some days with frost, but some other days have been warm and sunny. Today, for example, we may be flirting with record high temperatures up to 76 degrees (24 degrees C). Tomorrow, on the other hand, the high temperature is forecasted to reach only 52 degrees (11 degrees C).

turtle

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

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Autumn color

Posted in Art, Autumn, Nature, Photography, tagged , , , , , , on October 30, 2023| 7 Comments »

How do you capture the beauty of the fall foliage? I like to try a variety different approaches with my camera.  These three images of the water retention pond in Kingstowne, only a mile or so from my townhouse, convey some of my impressions of this colorful season.

The first image is perhaps my favorite of the three. By photography the reflections in the water I was able to remove the details of the foliage and focus on the colors and the light. It reminds me a little of some impressionist paintings by Monet and others.

For the second photo, I pointed my camera at a particularly colorful patch of leaves that were being backlit and zoomed in quite a bit. In addition to the brilliant colors, I really like the interplay of the light and the shadows.

The third image is the most “traditional” in its approach to the foliage—it is the kind of photo that you might see on a calendar. It provides the “big picture” that I sometimes forget to include in my normal photography, when I tend to concentrate on capturing the details of a subject with a macro or telephoto lens.

This season of autumn color will soon be coming to an end. When I left my house yesterday morning, I couldn’t help but notice that all of the streets and yards in my neighborhood were covered with fallen leaves. Life, it seems, is all about changes and celebrating each new moment.

autumn colors

autumn colors

autumn colors

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Autumn turtles

Posted in Autumn, Nature, Reptiles, turtle, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on October 29, 2023| 4 Comments »

I love the way these turtles were lined up on an upward-slanting log as they basked in the autumn sunlight last Tuesday at Jackson Miles Abbott Wetland Refuge. One smaller turtle looked like it was trying to merge into the traffic on the log, but the other turtles, like drivers in the Washington D.C. area where I live, were not letting him in.

The reflections in the water were a nice bonus and few floating leaves add little pops of autumn color.

turtles

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Autumn cormorant

Posted in Art, Autumn, Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on October 28, 2023| 8 Comments »

Do you imagine a photo in your mind and then try to create it? Most of the time I am an opportunistic wildlife photographer—I react to the situations in which I find myself and try to make the best possible photo to capture the subject, the action, or the mood. Sometimes, though, I look at a spot and think, “Wouldn’t it be great if my subject moved into that light or onto that photogenic perch?”

On Wednesday I watched a lone Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus) as it repeatedly dove into the water in a small suburban pond not far from my townhouse. Generally I encounter cormorants at larger bodies of water, but I know that this manmade pond is deep and is suited to birds that dive for food—some species of migratory diving ducks, for example, overwinter there.

The cormorant would spend quite a while underwater and I never knew where it would pop up next. I kept hoping it would surface in an area where the reflections of the fall foliage were especially colorful and eventually it did. The cormorant was quite far away, but I captured the kind of imagine that I had imagined, with colorful rippled patterns on the surface of the water as the cormorant swam into the frame. I encourage you to click on the imagine to see the details of the first image.

The second image was one of my earlier attempts. The cormorant surfaced closer to me than in the first shot, but the surface of the water was not as colorful as I wanted. However, the shot provides a really good look at the striking aquamarine eyes of this beautiful bird. Wow! Those eyes never fail to startle and delight me.

It is a fun challenge to try to incorporate the fall foliage into my photos and I have had an unusual amount of good luck in doing so this past week with a variety of subjects. I am starting to see more and more leaves on the ground, so I know that this period is transitory. Carpe diem!

Double-crested Cormorant

Double-crested Cormorant

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

 

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Familiar Bluet in October

Posted in Autumn, damselfly, Insects, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on October 19, 2023| 3 Comments »

Like dragonflies, their larger “cousins,” damselflies have been rapidly decreasing in numbers this month. During recent visits to Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, I have seen only a few remaining damselflies. Therefore I was especially happy to spot this handsome male Familiar Bluet damselfly (Enallagma civile) last Tuesday.

The little damselfly seemed to be giving me a sideward glance as I carefully focused on him and I see a hint of what might be a smile. I really like the way that the background turned out in this image too—the colors and bokeh balls add additional visual interest without detracting from the primary subject.

Familiar Bluet

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

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Tattered autumn

Posted in Autumn, Butterflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on October 18, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Many of the insects and plants that I now see show signs of the ravages of summer, like this damaged Common Buckeye butterfly (Junonia coenia) that I spotted atop an equally damaged plant during a recent visit to Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Nonetheless the beauty of the butterfly shines through and it appears to be fully functional.

Autumn is a time for harvest celebrations as we rejoice in the bounty of the growth that has taken place, but there is also a tinge of melancholy as we experience a sense of loss and the feeling that our lives our changing. Change, of course, is a constant in our lives, but most of us—and I definitely fit into this group—become creatures of habit and have trouble dealing with changes at times. Yet we eventually adapt and may even learn to appreciate the results of the change, even if the process of change is a bit uncomfortable.

Common Buckeye

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Perched Wandering Glider

Posted in Autumn, Insects, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on October 17, 2023| 3 Comments »

I endlessly tried to track several Wandering Glider dragonflies (Pantala flavescens) as they flew back and forth over a field at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge last Thursday and was thrilled when one of them finally landed some nearby vegetation, allowing me to capture this image.

Wandering Gliders, also known as Globe Skimmers or Globe Wanderers, are considered to be the most widespread dragonfly species on the earth, with a good population on every continent except Antartica, although they rare in Europe. According to Wikipedia, Wandering Gliders “make an annual multigenerational journey of some 11,200 miles (18,000 km); to complete the migration, individual Wandering Gliders fly more than 3,730 miles (6,000 km)—one of the farthest known migrations of all insect species.”

This modest image was technically quite challenging to capture. The vegetation in this field was dense and the autofocus on my camera kept getting confused by the stalks of vegetation, so I had to resort to manual focusing. I was reluctant to move about very much for fear of rippling the vegetation and disturbing the dragonfly and therefore had to crouch in an awkward position close to the ground. It is certainly not an award-worthy photo, but I am thrilled whenever I manage to get a decent shot of a dragonfly species that rarely perches.

Wandering Glider

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

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Hidden heron

Posted in Autumn, Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on October 16, 2023| 3 Comments »

This Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) was so well hidden that I could not tell if it was perched on a small raised portion of the ground or in a tree when I caught a glimpse of it during a recent visit to Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. My view of the heron initially was mostly obscured by the thick vegetation, but I managed to get a somewhat clear shot of it by climbing on top of a conveniently placed park bench.

Great Blue Heron

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

 

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Hidden eagle

Posted in Autumn, Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on October 15, 2023| 3 Comments »

This Bald Eagle was almost hidden in the foliage of a sweet gum tree when I spotted it on Thursday at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Normally I depend on the brightness of a bald eagle’s head to give away the presence of an eagle, but in this case the eagle’s head was in partial shade, making it stand out quite a bit less than it usually does.

The second shot shows a view of the eagle from a different angle. Even though this shot does not show as much detail as the first shot, which was actually taken after the second one, I like the way that it shows how the eagle was nestled on its perch amidst all of the branches.

In the upcoming months, many of the leaves will fall from the trees and it will become marginally easier for me to spot an eagle from a longer distance away. Of course, that will also make it easier for the eagles to spot me and my vision and reflexes are rarely a match for those of the eagles. Often my first indication of an eagle’s presence is when it takes to the air and flies away from me.

Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

 

 

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Arrowhead Spider

Posted in Arachnids, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, spiders, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on October 14, 2023| Leave a Comment »

On Thursday I spotted this cool-looking Arrowhead Spider (Verrucosa arenata) , also known as a Triangle Orbweaver, at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. This spider is one of the few known orbweavers that sits facing upwards in its web—all other species face downward.

Its distinctive triangle-shaped abdomen makes this species pretty easy to identify. If you look closely at the image, I think that you can see a couple of the spider’s large round eyes shining brightly in between several of the legs in the upper left portion of the spider’s body.

Arrowhead Spider

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Perfect autumn damselfly

Posted in Autumn, damselfly, Insects, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on October 14, 2023| 1 Comment »

Although the name of this Orange Bluet damselfly (Enallagma signatum) sounds like an oxymoron, its colors are a perfect match for this autumn season. As the name suggest, most damselflies in the bluet family are blue, but they do come in other colors.

I photographed this handsome male Orange Bluet on 10 October at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge and was thrilled to be able to capture a little autumn color in the background of the image.

Orange Bluet

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Common Green Darner in October

Posted in Autumn, Dragonflies, dragonfly, Insects, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , on October 13, 2023| 3 Comments »

There were several Common Green Darner dragonflies (Anax junius) flying overhead on 10 October at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. One of them landed and perched momentarily low in the vegetation and I was able to capture this image.

I have been seeing fewer and fewer dragonflies on the ground as we move deeper and deeper into October, but in the air I have been seeing quite a few Common Green Darners, Black Saddlebags, and Wandering Gliders, the dragonfly species that migrate through our area. Many of the members of the surviving summer species appear to be faded and tattered, but the migrants appear to be bright and pristine.

The tangled grasses and vegetation where the dragonfly was perched were dried out and mostly void of color, which helps the green of the dragonfly’s thorax to really stand out in the photo. I also like the way that I was able to capture the transparency and details of the dragonfly’s wings.

Common Green Darner

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Autumn Eagle Takeoff

Posted in Autumn, Birds, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on October 12, 2023| 7 Comments »

I spotted this Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) in a distant tree on Tuesday at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge at about the same time that it spotted me. I reacted quickly and managed to capture this first image as it prepared to take off. As you can see, there is already a bit of color in our autumn foliage, but the colors are relatively muted here in Northern Virginia, compared to what I would see when I was growing up in New England.

The second photo shows the eagle a few seconds after its takeoff as it rose above the trees. At that moment its feet were still dangling, but it raised its “landing gear” shortly after I captured the image.

It has been a while since I last posted eagle photos and it was wonderful to have a couple of sightings of these majestic birds on a beautiful fall day.

Bald Eagle

Bald Eagle

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Feasting on goldenrold

Posted in Autumn, Butterflies, Flowers, Insects, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , , , on October 11, 2023| 2 Comments »

I love bright colors and instinctively smile when I see the large patches of goldenrod that are still in bloom at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. The insects seem to love these flowers too and last Tuesday I spotted a large Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus) and smaller Clouded Sulphur butterfly (Colias philodice) feeding on goldenrod.

Monarch

Clouded Sulphur

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

 

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Orchard Orbweaver web

Posted in Arachnids, Art, Autumn, Halloween, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged , , , , , , , on October 10, 2023| Leave a Comment »

I am always amazed by the skill and artistry of spiders that construct elaborate webs, like this little Orchard Orbweaver spider (Leucauge venusta) that I photographed last Tuesday at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. It is a bit of a challenge to capture an image of a web like this, especially in full daylight, but I managed to do so by focusing very carefully and deliberately underexposing the image so that the background appeared a bit darker than it was in real life.

Orchard Orbweaver

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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