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which_chickOdonata are more in need of warm sunshine than my endothermic pony, so I did odonata first. Couple of things out and about.
First was a chalk-fronted corporal, a common summertime species in my pond. They appear to enjoy landing on aluminum rowboats for some reason. Anyway, this one is a female (note lack of lumpy bits) and they aren't chalk-y colored anyway. They're kind of a rusty brown.
and side view
That was in my yard. She still had shiny wings and kind of flutter-y uncertain flight, so she was fresh either today or late yesterday. (Freshly eclosed dragonflies have very shiny, soft-ish wings and flutter-y uncertain flight. Once they've been out of the water* about two days, they lose the shiny and figure out the flying gig.)
At the lodge dock, I snagged a male common baskettail. He's already in the "How To Sex Dragonflies" post, but here he is again.
and side view
And finally at the small creek beside the lodge, I found a female Aurora damselfly.
I also saw a ton of very, very fresh, tiny damselfies that I think are I. verticalis but they're still teneral ("very freshly eclosed") and look like tiny flying jacks (like the metal things in the old-fashioned girl's game) and I'm not going to net them just yet. But our other bluets are bigger and those are the only thing I think they could be. In a few days, they'll harden up and I can get pix at that juncture.
In case you were wondering about the welfare of these bugs, they are released unharmed. I net them with a home-made dragonfly net because ain't nobody got money to BUY a dragonfly net from some science supply place when WalMart sells perfectly fine fishing nets that you can cut the net off of and also super-cheap tiny-mesh netting that you can half-assedly duct tape to the rim of said net once you've removed the dumb-ass fish netting. The dragonfly net does not harm anything I catch with it and all bugs are released after being photographed.
*If you were not aware, all dragonflies and damselflies start life as aquatic bug-style things. They have six legs and live under water. When they are done growing up, usually in late May or early June in my world, they climb out of the water, cling to something like a grass stem or tree trunk, and burst out of their juvenile bug-forms. The bursting out of their juvenile bug-forms process is called eclosing if you are a science nerd. Newly eclosed odes pump up their wings and fly away, same day, and go on to be amazingly effective gnat/mosquito/fly predators for the bulk of the summer. But they all start as bugs in the water.
Bird and I went to the covered bridge stop sign and back, bareback pad, trotted (rising trot without stirrups, go me) the uphill sections, about an hour and fifteen minutes. He did a great job.
First was a chalk-fronted corporal, a common summertime species in my pond. They appear to enjoy landing on aluminum rowboats for some reason. Anyway, this one is a female (note lack of lumpy bits) and they aren't chalk-y colored anyway. They're kind of a rusty brown.
and side view
That was in my yard. She still had shiny wings and kind of flutter-y uncertain flight, so she was fresh either today or late yesterday. (Freshly eclosed dragonflies have very shiny, soft-ish wings and flutter-y uncertain flight. Once they've been out of the water* about two days, they lose the shiny and figure out the flying gig.)
At the lodge dock, I snagged a male common baskettail. He's already in the "How To Sex Dragonflies" post, but here he is again.
and side view
And finally at the small creek beside the lodge, I found a female Aurora damselfly.
I also saw a ton of very, very fresh, tiny damselfies that I think are I. verticalis but they're still teneral ("very freshly eclosed") and look like tiny flying jacks (like the metal things in the old-fashioned girl's game) and I'm not going to net them just yet. But our other bluets are bigger and those are the only thing I think they could be. In a few days, they'll harden up and I can get pix at that juncture.
In case you were wondering about the welfare of these bugs, they are released unharmed. I net them with a home-made dragonfly net because ain't nobody got money to BUY a dragonfly net from some science supply place when WalMart sells perfectly fine fishing nets that you can cut the net off of and also super-cheap tiny-mesh netting that you can half-assedly duct tape to the rim of said net once you've removed the dumb-ass fish netting. The dragonfly net does not harm anything I catch with it and all bugs are released after being photographed.
*If you were not aware, all dragonflies and damselflies start life as aquatic bug-style things. They have six legs and live under water. When they are done growing up, usually in late May or early June in my world, they climb out of the water, cling to something like a grass stem or tree trunk, and burst out of their juvenile bug-forms. The bursting out of their juvenile bug-forms process is called eclosing if you are a science nerd. Newly eclosed odes pump up their wings and fly away, same day, and go on to be amazingly effective gnat/mosquito/fly predators for the bulk of the summer. But they all start as bugs in the water.
Bird and I went to the covered bridge stop sign and back, bareback pad, trotted (rising trot without stirrups, go me) the uphill sections, about an hour and fifteen minutes. He did a great job.
