Gray Skies

The skies around here have been pretty gray so far this month. There have been a few nice days mixed in, but all of the rain and gloom have made things kind of depressing. I know that the rain is good for the environment. Over the past decade warmer temps and limited rainfall have caused many wetlands to dry up from year to year, and the wetlands are extremely important habitat. So the rain is a good thing, but it does not help when you want to get out and photograph wildlife. Fortunately things look like they have begun to clear up a bit and hopefully we will have good weather for the butterfly census that I am working at this weekend.

Sandhill Cranes

Twelve-spotted Skimmer

Four-spotted skimmer

Escargot?

Have you ever eaten snails before? I have not and I do not ever plan to do so. Snail is the generic term for mollusks that have a coiled shell in their adult stage. Snails can be found living on land, in the sea and in freshwater. Since I photographed these in the shallow waters at the Maplewood Nature Center they would fit into the freshwater snail category. I do not know much about snails but from what I have read I would guess that these may be in the Lymnaeidae family, which are a group of small to large sized freshwater snails that are commonly referred to as pond snails.

Santa Ana NWR

The only day that we did not have nice weather while we were in Texas was the day that we visited the Santa Ana NWR. This was too bad because Santa Ana is one of the most diverse refuges in the United States. Located at the most southern stretch of the Rio Grande River the park was established in 1943 to help protect migrating birds. The 2088 acres are comprised of a variety of different habitats, including subtropical, Gulf coast, Great Plains, and Chihuahuan desert, where you can find over 400 species of birds as well as almost half the species of butterflies in North America.

Despite the overcast skies and the misty rain that was falling off and on I decided to join a bird hike that was leaving the visitors center shortly after we arrived at the park. During the walk we spotted quite a few different types of birds. Unfortunately the light was not very good so I was not able to get good pics of everything. I did get some nice shots of a ladder-backed woodpecker.

The main bird that I was hoping to see in Santa Ana was the green kingfisher, I had been looking for these through our whole trip. Unfortunately I did not have any luck with the green kingfisher, even though I ran into several people who had seen them in the park that morning, I did however manage to snap a couple of pics of a scissor-tailed flycatcher which was a life bird for me.

After the bird hike I decided to head over to the Treetop Observation Tower. The tower opened back in 2006 it has two different platforms with the upper platform at around 40 feet. In front of the tower is the Canopy Rope Bridge. This 100 foot long bridge is suspended 25 feet above the ground which is height of many of the surrounding trees.

Both the tower and the rope bridge let visitors get a better look at some of the birds who spend most of their time at the tops of the trees. Birds like the vermilion flycatcher, above, spend about 90% of their time perched at the top of the trees where they hunt for flying insects. They are found mostly in Mexico and South America but the northern part of their range extends into south Texas and the other southwestern states of the United States. This was another lifer for me. While I was walking around the park chasing birds in the rain Michelle decided to stay dry while seeing the park by taking a tour on the Interpretive Tram. While on the tram tours she had a very exciting sighting, her first wild cat. This bobcat came out of the brush and walked down the road in front of the tram. The pictures where not that great, since she had to take the shots through the trams windshield, but I was glad that she got to see a bobcat because she was not with me a few days earlier when I saw my first wild bobcat at Bentsen State Park.

Note: This morning when I did this post I was not quite awake and I mixed up my vermilion flycatcher with a scarlet tanager. Even though they have similar coloration it was a stupid mistake because I was very excited when we photographed the VC because it was a life bird. Thanks to Fishing Guy, who caught the mistake, I have corrected the post so that I do not pass on any more bad information. I apologize for my error and will try in the future to get more sleep before I post.

Ebony Jewelwing

Damselflies are typically more difficult to photograph then dragonflies. Because of their small size it is difficult to get a focus on them using a long lens. However getting in close with a macro lens is no easy task either since they will usually fly away when you get that close. Fortunately some of the most spectacular looking damselflies in this area are large enough to photograph just like a dragonfly.

The broad-winged family of dragonflies are typically large and flashy. Most of the broad-winged damsels are found in the tropical areas of the world, with only around ten types found in North America, but we do have four that are found in this area. Two of the four are members of the genus Calopteryx which are more commonly known as jewelwings. The ebony jewelwing is usually found around small to medium size streams. They are a fluorescent blue or green color, depending on the light, with completely black wings. In the two photographs above the top one is a male and the bottom is a female. We can tell because the female has a white pseudostigma, white dot, near the tip of her wings. I photographed these ebony jewelwing where the Sunrise River intersects the Larger St Croix River in Wild River State Park.

Invasive Wild Flowers

Many of the wildflowers that I see while I am out shooting did not originate her in North America. Unfortunately some of these invasive species take hold and crowd out many of the native species. Such is the case with spotted knapweed, the purple flower in the picture above. This native of Europe is on the noxious weed list here in Minnesota because of chemicals in the plant that destroy the soil. Each plant produces hundreds of seeds which enable patches of spotted knapweed to grow inhibiting native plants like common cinquefoil, the yellow flower in the picture above.

Midland Clubtail

In the insect world the order Odonata is made up of dragonflies and damselflies. The order was named back in 1793 and roughly translated it means toothed ones, because of their toothed lower lip which is called the labium. The easiest way to determine whether an odonate is a dragonfly or a damselfly is to look at the placement of the eyes. Damselflies always have their eyes set apart while the eyes of the dragonflies are in contact with each other.

Of course every rule has to have its exception and the exception to the odonate eye rule is the clubtails. Even though clubtails have separated eyes, and that hammerhead type of look of the damselfly they are actually a part of the Anisoptera, or dragonfly, suborder. This is because their forewing is a different size and shape then their hindwing. Thus they belong to the Anisoptera, or different wing, suborder. Damselflies are part of the Zygoptera, or same wing, suborder because forewings and hindwing are relatively the same size and shape.
The midland clubtail is a good sized clubtail that is typically found near rivers, large streams and clear lakes. The prefer clear water with a lot of current or waves. They are a strong flier which allows them to hunt other dragons some which are not much smaller then they are, such as the larger skimmers and smaller clubtails. Although midland clubs are supposed to be somewhat rare in my area I always find a good number of them to photograph in Wild River State Park, on the shores of the St Croix River in the month of June.

Rice Lake Reflection

Sometimes the best sky shots are not found in the sky. I photographed this reflection at Rice Lake NWR. I love how the clouds mix in with the vegetation in the water. Its like combining both worlds, sky and lake, into one magical world.

The Endangered Karner Blue Butterfly

Eastern Kingbird

Green Frog

Over the past ten years or so, that I have been photographing wildlife, my interests have continued to expand. I began by photographing raptors and mammals, then I began photographing all types of birds. Next there was the addition of butterflies, then dragonflies, then pretty much all insects. Lately I have taken an interest in reptiles and amphibians. I have picked up a couple of reference books and field guides and I have been on the look out for different types of snakes, turtles, and frogs to photograph.

The green frog, pictured above, is pretty common in the eastern half of North America. Its range includes the eastern half of Minnesota. They can be found in most permanent wetland habitats, such as ponds, lakes, Rivers, streams, and swamps. Like most frogs they have excellent hearing which helps them to avoid predators. The large circle, which is visible on the side of the head, is called a tympanum. The tympanum is the frogs eardrum and transmits vibrations to the frogs inner ear which is located inside the frogs body.

Split Rock Light House

I think that I jinxed Blogger this weekend. On Saturday I posted about how I had not missed a day of posting in two years and then on Sunday when I went to post Blogger was down. It was down all night and most of the day today. Now that I am home and I have finally found that it is working again I published the post that I could not publish yesterday. I also had a dilemma about my post for today. I have been posting all about the parks we visited on our Texas trip but they are very time consuming and since I was not able to start on the post until a few minutes ago, because blogger was down, I decided to instead post this picture of the Split Rock Light House that I took in the fog on Saturday.

Widow Skimmer Macro Monday

The skimmer, or Libelleulidae, family of dragonflies is the largest in North America. There are over 100 different type of skimmers found in North America and over 1000 world wide. Here in my area we have around 28 different types of skimmers.

When most overage people think of dragonflies they usually think of skimmers. Skimmers are typically stout dragons that are very colorful. Many have stripes or other colored patterns on their wings. They are pond dragons so they are usually found around stagnant ponds or pools.
One of the most common and most recognizable skimmers is the widow skimmer. They have a unique wing pattern with the base of the wing, up until the nodus, shaded black. In males the remainder of the wing turns white due to pruinose, a powdery white substance that covers parts of certain types of dragonflies as they age. Females, as you can see in the first couple of pics are mostly yellow and black and are not affected by pruinose.