John Burridge

The dragonflies have been patrolling our yard.  This one seems to be a regular.  I'll have to look up what kind it is--they're common in this end of the valley--it's probably a flame skimmer.  

The cats haven't been in the yard much because of the dog.  However, they're venturing into it more and more, which will probably make things harder for the small flying creatures that have had a cat-free spring.

 

While we didn't catch him in flagrante delicto, we're pretty sure Dragonfly-Slayer Cicero damaged a Paddle-tailed Darner, (Aeshna palmata) late this afternoon.  I'd seen him pawing at something (I'd assumed a mouse) in the tall grassland next door, and discovered the darner on the walkway by our house a few minutes later.



At first I thought it was dead, but it had a very strong grip on the concrete.  I offered a dry twig for it to crawl on, and it pulled itself up onto my hand.   I didn't see any holes it its body, but I noticed as I was photographing it that it wasn't moving its lower wings.




The unrepentant monster was fairly certain I had carried off his prize, but wasn't exactly sure where I'd placed it.  Also, he didn't want to be photographed.




We're growing some corn, and I placed the dragonfly onto a stalk, flicked some fountain water onto it, and took some photos.









I checked on it after dusk, and it had climbed up under a fold in the corn leaves, so I'm hoping it will rest the night out and fly away in the morning.

I'm not sure if painting various bits of the house counts as going to the gym or not.  Mostly trim, uh, I don't know how many reps of paint-brush motions.

This (Sunday) afternoon, Cicero appeared outside with a dragonfly in his mouth (henceforth he shall be known as Cicero Dragonfly Slayer).  The dragonfly (probably at Common Whitetail, Plathemis lydia)  was buzzing to get out of feline jaws, which of course, was Very Exciting for the feline involved.  I called him a Wicked Thing and he dropped it.  This is the second dragonfly Cicero has caught in nine days.(Mark thought he'd caught a humming bird at first).  This one, alas, had a large hole in the middle of its abdomen -- I'm not sure if Cicero put the hole in there, or if a bird pecked at it or what.  

I put it, still quivering, on our phlox, thinking that while it wasn't a bug that a dragonfly might eat, that maybe a flower would seem more familiar than a table or the inside of a cat.  And then Mark and I went on to scrape and paint various parts of trim on our house.

I came back a few hours later, and the poor thing was still hanging onto the phlox flowers and being batted about by the breeze.  I unhooked it from the flowers and it latched onto my finger in what I thought was some sort of rigor mortis death-grip, but later realized was animal force.  I can't imagine how the insect was managing to respire, and it did seem rather confused.

So... I seized the opportunity to take macro-lens photographs of a semi-live dragonfly that was unable to fly away.  I did flick tiny drops of water over it in the hopes of reviving it, but I'm pretty sure it's not going to make it through the night on the branch of the camellia.  While my camera is not exactly the best device for astro-photography, it shines when it comes to photographing bugs.

When we first got to the north entrance of Crater Lake, we drove past the hordes of folks who had stopped at the first rim-side overlook and drove to the much less crowed second overlook.

I'm so used to the cedars, hemlocks, and firs that I forget that wildflowers grow on the rim.  Where the ground is mostly pumice, sand and gravel, the plants' leaves are more succulent and waxy.  Since we were there at the beginning of August, there were only a few small patches of snow on the ground, mostly in the shade of the southern rim.  Snow is on the ground about ten months out of the year.

I think this purple flower is a lupine.  




Dragonflies like Crater Lake, I think I must have seen something like fifty of them while we visited.  I only got close enough to photograph one, and managed to get a few shots of it from the above and the front.




In the early evening, we took a hike on the Vidae Falls Trail.  We didn't get to the falls, but we did get within about ten feet of a deer.  The pleasant shade was refreshing, although nearby forest fires made the sunlight ruddy.



A fallen tree caught my eye because of the way the remaining snag twirled in a corkscrew.  I always think of a tree's bark going straight up, but I guess it wraps around the tree.  




The next day on the Cleetwood Cove trail, we saw about ten, if not Very Tame Chipmunks, then at least Ones Wildly Unconcerned About Humans and Conditioned to Investigate Crinkling Plastic Bags.

We're back from Crater Lake.  It was nice and cool, if a little smokey from forest fires.   I'm going through pictures, and this is one.


More later.

 We're back from a trip to the Redwoods and the Oregon Caves.  While we were near the Stout Memorial Redwood Grove, I managed to get a close-up photograph of this dragonfly.  I'm not sure if it had just molted or what.  It didn't fly away when I walked up to it, although it did flap its wings like crazy for long enough for me to get about three macro shots of it.  This one came out the best.