Two bugs and a little birdie

[waldo]

Yay!  Animals.  This is mostly what I do.  Here's a few shots from the last group I was putting on my photography blog...


I have been shooting a TON of dragonflies this summer.  I think since last March I've gotten yellow, red, blue, green, black and brown ones.  I'm particularly keen on this one because you can see the shadow of his wing-veins on the lilypad.  (You may have to blow it up to see the details.)

From the "photography makes me stupid" files.  I made an animal alphabet book for my baby nephew.  I *only* used photos I took.  (I shlepped the camera to the pet store and camped out in the fish aisle to get the X-Ray tetra... until they kicked me out.)  But anyway - I needed a Y.  So I chased Yellow-Jackets around a pond for forty minutes trying to get a good shot.  This was the one I ultimately used.

The bane-of-my-existence bird.  I kept finding these things ALL over Chicago.  And they're highly photogenic.  Seriously, you can walk right up to them.  But I Googled until I couldn't Google any more trying to figure out what it is.  FINALLY, looking for something completely different a while back, I found out what this is by accident.  Anyone know?  I put the answer in my journal. :)  Seriously nature, WTF?

Comments

[holyoutlaw]

I love dragonflies! Have you identified any of yours?

[waldo]

Off hand I've seen Eastern Pondhawks (males - blue like in my icon, females - green like the one in the photo), Elfin Skimmers, Red-mantled Saddlebags, 12-spotted Skimmers and what seemed to be a *very* blue Common Whitetail.

There are others, but I haven't gotten good enough shots of them yet to do a good match to a photo.

Those are the Illinois ones I know. I haven't checked on my Florida ones yet. (So behind in sorting photos)

[holyoutlaw]

I have a few dragonfly pictures as well. Check them out if you're so inclined:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/holyoutlaw/sets/72157624545978876/

I'm west of the mountains (Seattle) so we have different species.

I bet Florida was dragonfly heaven.

[waldo]

Here's my photography blog: http://shootingdownthemiddleoftheroad.blogspot.com/

You can just hit the 'dragonfly' tag to find the relevant posts. :)


Your 'blue dasher' and my 'eastern pondhawk' do look an awful lot alike. I wonder if they have different common names in different areas.... [does a quick Google]

Ah! Yours has blue 'shoulders' mine has more green. Well, in the males... :) The female is all green, obviously.

[holyschist]

I have been ALL about the dragonflies this summer. Yesterday I found out about the miracle of fill flash and am kicking myself for all the mediocre shots which could have been AWESOME and in focus.

Looks like a Blue Dasher in your icon? Can't tell from the angle on the lilypad.

I'm going to guess female blackbird...*goes to check*...ha! yeah, people don't pay so much attention to the females sometimes. I didn't really make the connection until this summer. Red-winged?

[waldo]

It's a male Eastern Pondhawk. Chicago has an *insane* number of them this year. :)

And yes, the bird is a female Red Winged Blackbird. I seriously wonder what's going on on that Y-chromosome to make the males look so RADICALLY different than the females. :)

[holyschist]

I think it's a Blue Dasher, based on the black-tipped tail. Eastern Pondhawks have white claspers. Do you remember what color its face was? The males are very similar-looking, face and tail aside and they're often found in the same areas.

Blue Dasher: http://bugguide.net/node/view/598/bgimage
Eastern Pondhawk: http://bugguide.net/node/view/577

IDK, lots of birds are even more sexually dimorphic--there's a parrot species that was originally identified as two species until they realized the green ones always mated with the red ones or something like that. And of course dragonflies are SUPER dimorphic.

[turlough]

The first picture is great!

[waldo]

Thanks! I'm kind of in love with it too. :)