Female Amberwing

I have found a few new hiking locales on the way home from work. One Hemlock Gorge had little flocks of amberwing dragonflies. I saw my first female as well. The males have completely gold wings, the female has pretty bars.

Crunch

It wasn't even particularly windy, just very rainy. It also wasn't a tree I ever suspected of dropping. Of course it went right into the pond. It took out a length of fence, but the shed seems to have survived fine.

Blue Dasher

Blue Dasher Dragonfly

I find these to be the ubiquitous dragonfly. They're everywhere, in the woods, in the pond, in your yard. They're also calm about being approached if they're perched.

Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly

Sometimes having ridiculous quantities of bee balm comes in handy. This swallowtail just fluttered back and forth for quite some time.

Amberwing

Amberwing Dragonfly

I just visited Cutler Park for the first time last weekend. Not much too interesting, though I went late in the day. There was a trio of amber wings flying just next to the trail. I got close, but this was the best image I got.

Painted Skimmer Dragonfly

Painted Skimmer Dragonfly

A few weeks ago I wandered around Borderland on a Sunday morning. This would be what I found the most interesting. There were plenty of other dragonflies, but nothing else I hadn't seen before.

Turk's Cap Lily

The upside of having a temp job is having a job, the down side is not being in the yard during the day. The Turk's Cap Lilies have been blooming for over a week now and this was my first chance to photograph one.

Flying Hawk

Excellent winds let the hawk float about 6 feet away from me for a short time. Quite convenient for photography.

More Red-Tail

There were people on this beach maybe 15 feet away when the hawk landed. They got closer and it just sat, spending lots of time watching the grass, likely trying to figure out how to catch the voles that lived in there.

Carolina Saddlebags Dragonfly

Carolina Saddlebags Dragonfly

Both today's and yesterday's dragonflies were on Beech Forest Pond. If you poke around the Cape Cod National Seashore eventually you'll find the self-guided trails. The Beech Forest Trail circles a shallow pond teeming with dragonflies. The ponds aren't even on the seashore maps. The bike path circles a few other ponds as well. I spent some of each day walking the trails trying to catch a dragonfly perching and snap a photo before it took off.

12 Spotted Skimmer

12 Spotted Skimmer Dragonfly - male

I had several awesome days while on vacation. The hawk was one, but catching a twelve spotted skimmer and a Carolina saddlebags dragonfly landing on the same day was pretty nice too.

Red Tail Headshot

The hawk really did let me get mighty close, probably within 8 feet.

Immature Red Tail Hawk

No I did not spend last week at a falconry show. I was on vacation on the Cape where the wi-fi access was too spotty for posting. The hawk above actually landed on my hotel roof, then proceeded to land on a post right outside by porch. It then hung around for about 20 minutes total, though some of that was back on the roof. There were numerous people approaching to photograph and it didn't seem startled much. This photo is cropped slightly to cut out the two people in the background also photographing the bird. I took roughly 10 photos a minute while it was hanging around. You can never take too many photos of an unlikely critter. More cape critters to come, including more hawk pics.

Pickerelweed

It's been several years since I planted these and I'm finally getting flowers in a standard configuration rather then just two little flowers before it falls in the pond.

Damsel

The damselflies are hatching from the pond in impressive numbers. I still feel bad putting mosquito dunks in there as I expect that impacts them as well as the mosquitoes, but I can't have West Nile in my backyard.