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Showing posts for 'odonates'. Clear search
The last ode winging it
November 07, 2020 - Any dragonflies still on the wing last week were, most likely, done in by the killer frost that arrived on Halloween mor...
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A salty dragon
August 10, 2020 - Following my latest twice-yearly visit with my cardiologist—nothing untoward to report, praise the Lord—I rewarded good...
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Halloween in July
July 22, 2020 - The continuing intense heat and humidity, to say nothing of the persistent deer flies, have made walking something less...
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Debut great blue
June 29, 2020 - The overall color pattern of this dragonfly—the two-toned abdomen and the black marks on the wing tips—usually is a sign...
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Origin story
June 08, 2020 - When I was a kid, my mom, who was no real fan of the natural world, told me that dragonflies, which she called "darning...
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Exquisite mystery
June 01, 2020 - When I started this endeavor seven years ago—merciful heavens, time has flown!—it was envisioned as a way to highlight s...
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Aurora eating
May 24, 2020 - While I've never forgotten that dragonflies are always fierce predators, it occasionally slips my mind that their more s...
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Second ode
May 19, 2020 - In past years, one of my favorite and most often repeated post was on the first dragonfly that I spotted for the year, a...
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Northern light
May 18, 2020 - It's late, I realize, but I started picking up the first odonates only yesterday. However, because of a camera problem—f...
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Not really a widow
July 29, 2019 - When you spot your first Widow Skimmer dragonfly, it's easy to understand why birders and butterfly aficionados get hook...
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First fawn
July 01, 2019 - This was a definite surprise. It was a warm, sunny morning—the fact that it wasn't raining was a surprise in and of itse...
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Basket of tails
June 13, 2019 - I know what some of you—the unlikely faithful who have been visiting this blog all along (a blessing for me, to be sure)...
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Welcome arrival
May 21, 2019 - Everything has been insanely slow this year, and while this is, no doubt, attributable to the insanely slow arrival of g...
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True survivors
October 29, 2018 - Since the first bona fide dragonflies were filling the skies some 300 million years ago, it's definitely fair to say tha...
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Mottling saved
October 04, 2018 - I'm not sure the dragonflies are quite on the move yet—well, the ones that will be traveling southeast soon enough—but t...
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Dragonhunter finale?
September 17, 2018 - One of the "inconvenient truths" I discovered during my long recovery from heart surgery is that all of those daily walk...
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Migrant search
September 15, 2018 - This morning marked the start of the first guided nature walk I was leading for the Watch Hill Conservancy, the organiza...
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Enter the dragon... hunter
July 30, 2018 - I am, it almost goes without saying, pretty close to obsessed with odonates, and while many more-or-less retired guys my...
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A different fawn
July 23, 2018 - With the steady heat and humidity seemingly here for the duration—and there are deluded souls who believe that climate c...
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Handsome widower
July 10, 2018 - There's been something of a dearth of odonates this month and last, and their relative absence has both mystified and un...
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Painted perfection
June 13, 2018 - I was afraid that this was going to be a very mediocre dragonfly season, but, in daily increasing numbers, the odonates...
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Spike driver
June 05, 2018 - I don't want to sound too one-note, but I'm finding that, all too often, I'm invoking the "spring-that-wasn't" as an exp...
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Posterior perch
June 02, 2018 - Last night, I almost postponed the National Trails Day walk I was scheduled to lead in this morning—the Weather Channel...
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Dark jewel
May 31, 2018 - For reasons that may, or may not, have an explanation—blame it on the frigid spring... blame everything on the frigid sp...
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Recovery reward
May 04, 2018 - When I finished hauling all of the trash—praise be, more recyclables than garbage—to the various proper places at the du...
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Meadowhawk redux
October 03, 2017 - For reasons I can't begin to fathom, from global warming to the election of Donald Trump, it has been a strangely off ye...
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Next generation
August 16, 2017 - Reproduction among invertebrates can take on many shapes and forms, a number of which fit into the, let us say, "don't t...
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Uber-predator
August 09, 2017 - Several hundred million years ago, giant dragonflies, with wingspans exceeding two feet, patrolled the steamy and oxygen...
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Early Halloween
August 03, 2017 - When my granddaughter Stasia came out of one of the dollar stores recently, she was aghast at what she'd seen. "Hallowee...
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Landscape ode
July 02, 2017 - Years of tracking dragonflies have taught me, within fairly broad limits, when to expect certain signature species to sh...
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Fiddling about
June 19, 2017 - This afternoon found me in the car on the way to a doctor's appointment near New Haven, and after that ordeal, more ment...
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Old young friends
June 14, 2017 - Everything continues to be late this June, and the absence of some of the signature species of late spring has begun to...
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Exclamation point odonate
June 10, 2017 - I am gradually getting to the point where I can claim at least a modest amount of identification expertise with the drag...
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Spike driver
June 04, 2017 - By this time in past years, the June air has been thrumming with dragonflies of all sorts and every walk would have yiel...
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A salute to corporals
May 20, 2017 - Overnight, the heat departed, and in its wake, cooler heads, well, weather, began to prevail. I spent the morning photog...
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Aquatic renewal
October 29, 2016 - It's hard to believe that only a couple of weeks ago, this stream was almost bone dry and silent, but we've had a close-...
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The wanderer
October 04, 2016 - I had to talk myself into going to the beach this afternoon, and it was a difficult argument, since I'd already gone for...
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Old Blue Eyes, redux
September 29, 2016 - It hasn't been a very good year for Spreadwing Damselflies, the members of the odonate suborder Zygoptera whose fore- an...
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Unknowingly deceased
August 06, 2016 - This has been a fine year for Common Whitetail dragonflies, and I've seen so many of the handsome and striking odes that...
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Old friend
July 17, 2016 - Some days—and nights—are filled with new discoveries; others are simply a chronicle of staying in touch with old friends...
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Early Halloween
July 06, 2016 - With the hot weather now firmly in place and walking being more of a chore than a delight, I'm tempted, metaphorically,...
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Painted meadow
June 30, 2016 - While Painted Skimmer dragonflies are supposed to be on the wing in late May, I rarely see them around here until the en...
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Ol' Blue Eyes
June 08, 2016 - If your knee-jerk reaction to yet another dragonfly image is, well, Dear God in Heaven, can't the naturalist shoot anyth...
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Aerial
June 05, 2016 - Post-Trails-Day, I celebrated what I think was a success with—what else?—a hike. My destination was a long-time favorite...
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Here come the lancets
June 02, 2016 - Finally, finally, finally, the air is starting to be filled with the glints of sunlight on wings—a sight that indicates...
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The first common dragonfly
May 31, 2016 - I was beginning to wonder if something was wrong with our odonate population. To be sure, May was often chilly, many tim...
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Ebony emergence
May 24, 2016 - In yet another example of anti-Pasteurism, chance favored the not-particularly-well-prepared mind. After spending a good...
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Last meadowhawk?
December 12, 2015 - When the temperature this afternoon soared into the 60s—a new high, I'm pretty sure—I knew that I had a mission: to visi...
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Odonate high tea
October 15, 2015 - The afternoons have been deliciously warm, and though I'm still not at my best, healthwise—both physical and emotional—I...
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An unexpected heron
September 08, 2015 - As a result of far too many Great Blue Herons missed, I have learned to approach the millpond dam and waterfall warily,...
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The start of the swarm
August 26, 2015 - As I walked past the doomed field across the street, I noticed, in what is still left of the meadow towards the still-sh...
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Addled Dragonhunter
August 23, 2015 - I headed out on my late afternoon, diminished-risk-of-sunburn walk to the millpond where, I knew from past experience, I...
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Still life with Jewelweed
August 20, 2015 - It was a hot, hot afternoon, but my desire to continue testing my new lens overcame my medication-induced fatigue and th...
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Tricky target
August 10, 2015 - When I started this blog more than two years ago, my walking route usually had me taking a right at the foot of my drive...
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The odonate nightmare
August 02, 2015 - The Dragonhunters, those huge—they're our largest clubtailed odonate—nightmares, have started patrolling the pools and s...
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Odonate orgy
July 28, 2015 - The Powdered Dancer damselflies, a large and unusually robust species with very white thoraxes, have been active in the...
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Discovering calico
July 06, 2015 - In my several years as an ardent but definitely amateur odonatologist, I've managed to learn a number of the more common...
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Don't try this at home
June 14, 2015 - A host of newly minted dragonflies have been emerging from the water over the past week, and they all seem to have one t...
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Dark jewel
June 05, 2015 - This is not the first of the Ebony Jewelwing damselflies to pay us a visit—they've been on the wing, the dark wing, for...
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Almost adult
June 03, 2015 - Blue Dasher dragonflies are common as dirt around here, and they just might be our most abundant species, with Pondhawks...
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Dot, dot, dot-tails
May 28, 2015 - After several years on the hunt, odonates have become something of an obsession... a magnificent and productive one, to...
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Babies at the nursery
May 23, 2015 - I had to head to the supermarket this afternoon, but before I made it over there, I stopped at the Henne refuge for a qu...
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The baskettails
May 19, 2015 - The baskettails, a group of dragonflies that are nestled within the Emerald clan, are among the first odonates to take t...
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Ode to spring
May 07, 2015 - We spent much of the morning and early afternoon at a funeral for a wonderful friend of my mom's—a dear woman we grew up...
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Third eye
September 04, 2014 - For the past few years, I've had the chance to spend a good part of one late-summer day at the University of Rhode Islan...
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