Hummingbird Moth

I've seen this guy come back a few times now. They're a small moth that mimics a hummingbird. It does get obvious when you get close they aren't a hummer (six legs), but from far away their flying pattern is very similar. (The computer is sort of functioning now, likely has a bad ram stick. Why it insists on giving obscure error codes instead of saying a ram stick is bad is what I'm annoyed about now.)

Blue Fronted Damselfly

Eeek a day late. Here's two to make up for it. My main computer is eating its operating system again so I spent too much time fiddling with it, okay, I went to Canobie Lake Park yesterday too. Enough about me.

Near as I can tell both these are female Blue Fronted Damselflies. I haven't found a picture of the blue form of the females, but this seems to match a description I did find. They were all over my backyard yesterday, don't see any yet this morning, but hopefully they've hung around.

Grass

Well it isn't a dragonfly. All along the low tide areas on Cape Cod I like hiking there are mats of this grass. I love the tousled look and always get a few pictures.

Spangled Skimmer - Male

I know I said the dragonflies will stop. At some point they might, but it's summer and they are one of my favorite subjects. This is a male to match the female I posted two weeks ago. Often I don't exactly know what I've photographed until I get home and can zoom in unless it is an easily recognizable dragonfly. This one has been added to my mental list since it is the only dragonfly with white spots on its wing tips. They look almost exactly the same as another species unless you notice the wingtips and their slightly different eyes.

Waseeka

I'm back. I've been fiddling with the pages for the last day or so, and should be back to posting as soon as it cools off enough to make it worth sitting at the computer with the pictures on it to post.

Yesterday I wandered about in the Upton/Hopkinton area. I started off at Upton State Forest which was mostly a bust. The water had dropped too much so any dragonflies were far from shore. I then looked at my maps and decided to try Waseeka since it wasn't too far away. On the way there I passed a small pond recreation area and thought I might want to visit it on the way back.

Waseeka was nice. However it is small and there is no map panel. I also wouldn't try getting a very big vehicle in their parking lot. I followed the trail straight, ignoring the off branches and walked along the earthen dam. The deer flies were awful in spots.

A very annoyed osprey spent most of the time I was there circling my head screaming. he didn't dive bomb, just circled, so I mostly ignored it. There were plenty of dragonflies there, including a bunch of widow skimmers and amberwings. neither were particularly accommodating, though i got one shot of a widow skimmer male.

There were also a bunch of very calm frogs. I guess when you get that fat there isn't much point in fleeing.

The best critter find was after I left Waseeka. I stopped at that Recreation area on Main street in Hopkinton. It is just a town managed pond as far as I can tell. However there were halloween pennants hanging out next to the parking lot.

Osprey

One new place I wandered yesterday was Waseeka in Hopkinton. It was the first place I've been screamed at and had an osprey circle around my head for the entire hike. The nest was in the middle of the pond, but this guy was serious about me leaving. He was circling maybe 20 feet up screaming. He never tried to dive bomb or anything so I mostly ignored him.

Halloween Pennant

So I wandered all over in this awful hot weather, and it was at a random stop that I found something new. There was at least a single male and female at a random recreation area on Main Street in Hopkinton. I had driven by it on my way to Waseeka (which also wasn't bad) and decided to stop there to get another drink out of the cooler. Sitting on a chest high weed was a Halloween Pennant. I walked all the way around the pond and only found them near the parking area.

Elfin Skimmer

I wandered partway around Ponkapoag pond yesterday and spotted two new dragonflies. The more interesting one was a male Elfin Skimmer Nannothemis bella. It was hanging out along the boardwalk in the swamp. It's the smallest dragonfly in North America, and was maybe 2 inches long. I expect to run out of dragonflies some time this week, but no promises.

Calico Pennant

Calico Pennant - Male

I saw a new dragonfly! A Male Calico Pennant. It's sad how excited I was to spot it. It's also sort of sad exactly how far I had to walk to get where it was hanging out. I found it in the mowed field past the old farmhouse. I had walked the entire pond edge trail to the pond trail and around the house before I got anything good. I also finally noticed the parking at Bay rd. I did spot a few new damselflies at Borderland, but my trips back will be limited due to their obnoxious parking fee.

Common Whitetail Dragonfly

As someone may have noticed I was on Cape Cod for most of last week. While technically I was on a family vacation I also took some hiking time and stalked dragonflies. I have a number of new excellent photos and am quite happy with my vacation. The above, a male common whitetail, is a personal favorite as I've been trying for years to get close to one of these guys. White tails often rest on the ground and as soon as you begin to approach fly four or so feet further down a trail. This behavior continues until they run out of trail and fly behind you to start in the other direction. This time I stood to the side of the trail near where I could see several fighting and waited. After 10 minutes or so one was nice enough to come visit. Once you're near them they aren't too flighty if you move slowly.

Another Dragonfly

One more dragonfly from Skunknett River. No id yet. Edited to Add ID: Female Spangled Skimmer - Libellula cyanea.

Male Ebony Jewelwing

Here's a male from yesterday as well. I got a few fluttering pictures but many are just standard wing location pics when I missed the wing flutter.

Female Ebony Jewelwing

Ebony Jewelwing - Female

The best place I've found for spotting Jewelwings is Skunknett River. If you head toward the overlook trail there is a little wooden bridge that crosses the Skunknett river. If you get there before the sun gets to the bridge you can sit on the bridge and wait for the sun to cross it you can convince some of the damselflies to land nearby if you're quiet. Dozens will circle the river mouth and fly around you. This female slowly moved closer and closer over the course of 1 1/2 hrs. I went through 800 photos.

Green Damselfly

No id. I find damselflies much harder to identify. Edited to Add ID: Male Fragile Forktail - Ischnura posita.

Eastern Pondhawk

I see these green dragonflies just about everywhere, but finding ones that are calm enough to approach is rare. Most of them sit still just long enough for you to focus then they're off. This is likely a female, and looking at the back of her wings somewhat beat up, but she let me get nice and close. This was on the Beech Forest Trail on the Cape Cod National Seashore in Provincetown MA.

Deer

While this doesn't seem like an impressive picture, this is one of my best deer images to date.  All my previous attempts are either from so far away it looks like a dog, or are so dark focusing was nearly impossible.  For some reason my thrashing arms to try to stop the attacks of deer flies didn't scare away this deer, I looked up near the wildlife pond and there it was.

Another Dragonfly

You may have noticed I certainly have a theme critter.  Here's another from Broadmoor yesterday. I like to get as close to the eyes as possible, though this was cropped to get this close.  My guess on species is some type of meadow hawk, though it seems early for those as I see most of them in August.

Broadmoor Dragonflies

Blue Dasher Dragonfly - Male

Broadmoor in Natick MA is my favorite dragonfly spot. I find the best diversity of species there. This is an immature male Blue Dasher. You can see how his tail is starting to turn blue and he's losing his bright yellow stripes.

Katydid

I don't remember seeing these much in the last few years, but this year they're everywhere. Now if only I could get some grasshoppers.

Happy 4th of July

Here's a damselfly... no idea on species as I haven't looked it up. Edited to Add ID: likely Female Violet (Variable) Dancer - Argia fumipennis.

No Pesticides

This year I'm using nothing to kill off critters. For the last few years I've been using insecticidal soap every year on the rose bushes, to no avail (aphids). This year I decided I don't care how munched they get I'm not spraying them. I picked off the canker worms, but did nothing else. A few are going to bloom at least a well as last year 9that means one flower per plant by the way). This is 'Distant Drums', the only names rose we have.

Crested Iris Propagation

At least a week ago I noticed my crested iris was trying to expand with new fans. This would be easy except it's sort of jam packed in a raised bed right against two sides. I noticed the new growth had 3 or 4 half inch roots each and thought I'd try treating them a little like bearded iris. I clipped out a few fans, and put them in some pots. I've been keeping them overly moist and the roots have been growing.

That led me to clipping off a few more fans and trying to root them in one pot. I love crested iris, but really don't have the funds to be spending money on plants, so this year everything with seeds or anything I can split or multiply an easier way is getting planted, split or clipped. Next Spring I have plenty of other housekeeping to do. Some of the older perennials have gone too long without being split, the delphinium especially.

Part Two Here.