Four-spotted Skimmer

Critters come in all shapes and sizes and my goal is to try and photograph them all, at least all of them in North America. I am sure that I will probably not have the time and resources to accomplish my goal but it sure is fun trying. So far the I have photographed mammals as large as giant humpback whales in Alaska and California and small insects like bees, beetles, butterflies and dragonflies that I can find right outside my door.

Over the past few years dragonflies have become on of my favorite subjects, along with birds. Last year I pushed my hobby of photographing dragonflies a bit further and got involved with the Minnesota Odonata Survey Project. I have helped to survey dragonflies in about 10 counties through out the state and have even purchased a net so that I can capture specimens, the dragons that I capture I typically release after I get some close up macro pictures.

This dragonfly is a four spotted skimmer. A fairly common member of the skimmer family that is usually found around ponds, lakes and other wetlands. If you think that you might have seen one of these around your home in Europe, Asia, Northern Africa, or Japan you may be correct because this species is circumpolar. Even though it is nice that I do not have to go far to photograph a dragon that can be found across the ocean I hope that some day I will get the chance to photograph them in a more exotic locale.

Four-spotted Skimmer Wordless Wednesday

Four-spotted Skimmer

A common dragonfly found around much of North America, the four-spotted skimmer gets its common name from the black nodal spot and stigma on each wing. There are 4 spots on both the forewing and hindwing. The scientific name is Libellula quadrimaculata.

The four-spotted skimmer is a circumpolar species and can be found in Europe, Asia, northern Africa, and North America. In Europe they are called the four-spotted chaser and some develop much larger wing spots at the base of the hindwing then those in North America.

Four-spotted skimmers are ambush style hunters. They usually have a favorite perch or two from which they will hunt, often coming back to the perch to feed or try again. This makes them a good dragonfly to photograph. Males and females both look the same so I am not sure which these are.

Four-spotted Skimmer

Four-spotted skimmer

Four-spotted Skimmer

Four Spotted Skimmer

Over the past few years I have really taken an interest in photographing other parts of nature, besides just birds. It began during the middle of summer back in 2007, I was photographing plenty of birds but there was not a lot of variety in what I was seeing. That is when I began to notice other forms of wildlife, particularly butterflies and dragonflies.Last summer I began to take photographing dragons a little more seriously. I purchased my first dragon field guide, Dragonflies of the Northwoods by Kurt Mead, I went to a workshop on photographing dragons, at the Maplewood Nature Center, and I began to look for places where I could find dragons to photograph. This year, many of the trips that I have been making around Minnesota lately have been in search of specific types of dragons. I am hoping that with in a few years I will have photographed every type of dragonfly found in Minnesota.
My plan is to post pictures of each of the different type, as well as birds, butterflies, and other creatures when I build my website. Until that time I will continue to post pics here on the blog for your enjoyment. I took these pics of four-spotted skimmer last July at the Maplewood Nature Center.

Goals for 2009

At the beginning of each year many people take a few minutes to figure out some New Year's resolutions. Most people do not put much thought into them because they do not really intend to follow through, at least not for very long. I do not do resolutions but I have been thinking for the past few days about some goals that I would like to accomplish in 2009. Here is what I came up with.

1) Build a website to work in conjunction with the blog. This will probably start out simple, I am still pretty green when it comes to HTML, but I would like to build it up so that at some point it can become a reference and educational tool, kind of following the spirit of the blog, for people who care about birding and nature.

2) I made a goal about the middle of last year to try and make a post every day. As a blog reader I know that the blogs that I visit frequently are the ones that have regular content. I succeeded in that goal, I have posted every day since June 5, 2008, but this year I am looking to take things a bit further. Two posts every day would be a little too much but I am going to try and get over 400 posts for 2009.

3) I have been participating in a lot of memes lately, I think that they are a great tool for bringing new people to the blog and hopefully some of those visitors will like what the see and return. I think that I have a good idea for a new meme and I plan to launch it sometime early in 2009, maybe as part of the new website.

4) One of the memes that I have been participating in lately is Today's Flowers. I have found that I took a lot more pictures of flowers and plants then I thought I did, but so far I have been lax in the meme and have not really followed through and identified the flowers or found any facts to pass on. In 2009 I plan to spend some time learning my flowers and plants. Will be an expert on botany? I don't think so but like many of the other things that I post about we can all learn together.

5) In the summer of 2007, shortly after I began the blog, I began shooting dragonflies during the height of summer when the birding was slow. Last year I got a lot more interested in photographing dragonflies and actively sought them out. In 2009 I am going to make an effort to try and photograph as many of the species that have been reported in the state of Minnesota as possible, that is over 100 different types.

Speaking of dragons here are some dragon shots that I took back in August, 8-11, at Purgatory Creek.

Eastern Pondhawk
Four-Spotted Skimmer

Once I have my Minnesota collection I will try and branch out and get some of the other types from other places around the country. Of course dragons will have their own section on the future website, which will hopefully help other people to learn about these raptor like insects.

Maplewood Nature Center Four-Spotted Skimmer

Another new location that I began to explore this summer was Maplewood Nature Center. While looking up info about dragonflies on the web I came across the website for the Minnesota Odonata Survey Project. They have several events through out the summer including a workshop that was going to be held at the Maplewood Nature Center on the 23rd of August. I was interested in class and so I decided to go check out the park on the last day of July.
Maplewood Nature Center was not as big as many of the other places that I regularly go to shoot but I found it very relaxing. Unlike most of the other parks that I visit Maplewood Nature Center does not allow pets, bikes or joggers. This makes it kind of a haven for those of us who just want to get out and enjoy nature and appreciate not having distractions.The best parts of the park for me is the board walk that runs across the lake and a small meadow on the southern end of the park. From the boardwalk you can get a great view of a small, tree covered, island that was home to many birds through out the summer. In late July the pond was filled with lilly pads, which made great perches for four-spotted skimmers to hunt from.
The four spotted skimmer gets its name from the black stigma and nodal spot on each wing, the second photo gives you the best view of these spots. All dragons have a stigma and nodal spot on each of their wings but the nodal spot, the spot on the middle of the front edge of each wing where the veins come together, is not very visible on most dragons other then the four-spot. Four- spotted skimmers can be found in North America, Europe, North Africa, Japan, and back in July they could be found at the Maplewood Nature Center.

The Rest of the Dragons at the Bass Ponds

There were also a few other types of dragonfly that I photographed on my trip to the Bass Ponds back in July.
The twelve spotted skimmer is one of the most common dragons around. It is easily recognized, by the spots on the wings, and usually perches in the open making them easy to photograph. An added bonus is that if they flush when approached they will typically land back on the same perch or one near by.
The common whitetail male is also pretty hard to mistake. The wing pattern along with the white pruinose abdomen make them recognizable from a pretty good distance away. The female common whitetail looks a lot like a female twelve-spotted skimmer.

Another common pond dragon that is a member of the skimmer family is the widow skimmer.
Widow skimmers are identified by the black and the white pruinose bands on their wings. The female widow skimmer only has the black band and does not get pruinose on the wings or abdomen.
One dragon that was not as common as the rest, that I was able to photograph that day, is the eastern amberwing. These small dragons are usually less then an inch long and prefer still or slow moving water.
This was a male eastern amberwing, you can tell because the wings are completely colored. The female amberwing has a wing pattern that is similar to the Halloween pennant, although they are quite a bit smaller.
The final dragon that I photographed was the four-spotted skimmer. This type of dragon can be found all over the globe including North America, Europe, North Africa and Asia.

Bass Ponds Dragonflies

On Monday July 14th it was a nice day so I decided to go and visit the Bass Ponds after work. In midsummer there is not usually a lot of birds around the Bass Ponds, but there are sure a lot of pond dwelling dragonflies to photograph.
The twelve-spotted skimmer is named for the black spots on its wings. You can see from both the picture above and the picture below that each of the four wings contains three black spots for a total of twelve all together. The male twelve spotters also have white spots in between the black spots so both of the pictured twelve spots are male.
Twelve-spots are pretty easy to photograph. Since they are fairly common dragonfly through out most of North America, except for the extremes, they are usually pretty easy to find. There size and the fact that they like to perch on the tops of sturdy vegetation also aides in finding this species. The best part though is that if you get to close and flush a twelve-spot chances are he will come back and land in almost the exact same spot. So all that you need to do is sit and wait.
The eastern pondhawk is not quite as easy to photograph as the twelve-spot. They are much less common and prefer to hunt from the ground, as pictured above, or a low perch. Females and immature males are green, but as the males mature they gain a powder blue pruinosity which begins from the end of their abdomen and eventually covers most of their body.
It is a bit more difficult to see the spots on the four spotted skimmer then on the twelve-spotted. The spots are the stigma, small colored patch at the end of every dragonflies wing, which is black and a heavy black nodal spot. The nodal spot is where a cluster of veins join together near the center of the front edge of each wing. All dragons have a nodal spot although on most it is not as visible as it is on the four-spotted. The four-spotted skimmer pictured above is probably pretty mature, you can tell because it has lost most of the color in its wings and its abdomen is fairly dark.
I think that it is strange that they call them four-spotted skimmers. Since they have 2 spots on each wing they actually have a total of eight spots, if you count them the way that twelve-spotted are counted.

Bass Ponds Dragonfly Mating

The Bass Ponds is always a good place to look for dragonflies. BP consists of trails around a series of small ponds, these ponds where once used for producing fish to stock lakes in the area. Between the tails and the ponds there is a good deal of grass, weeds, milkweed and other pond vegetation. On one pond there is a small boardwalk that goes out to a viewing platform in the pond and the Minnesota River runs along the eastern border of the park.
The dot-tailed whiteface is one of the dragons that I photographed a lot early in the summer.

I caught this pair in the wheel position. This is how dragonflies and damselflies mate. So I guess you could call this dragon fornification.
Another dragon that was fairly common that day was the four-spotted skimmer. These larger dragons are named for the four spots on each pair of wings.
Four-spotted skimmers are found in many places around the world. Besides most of North America they can also be found in Europe, Northern Africa and even Japan. They like to perch on twigs or other taller vegetation and wait to ambush prey, which even includes mid-sized dragons like meadowhawks.
The widow skimmer is another larger dragon that prefers to perch on twigs or reeds waiting for prey. They are usually found in established ponds, rivers and lakes and shy away from seasonal ponds.
According to Kurt Mead, in his book Dragonflies of the North Woods, widow skimmers spend the night hanging beneath overarching leaves. Dragonflies of the North Woods is a great book if you want to go dragon hunting in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, or parts of southern Canada. It is specifically meant for the northern part of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan, however I have only found one dragonfly in southern Minnesota that I did not find in the book, so I certainly recommend the book and use it all the time myself for identification and research.