Damsels and Dragons

We live about 200' from a little spring creek through town. Been lots of aquatic bugs, currently we have 5 damsels on the deck with us.
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Cabezon said:
Nisqually NWR: 19 June 2025. Seduced by other alluring locations, I hadn't been to Nisqually in six weeks. But I dropped by last week to see what was happening. I did catch some good bird pics, but the most alluring photographic subjects were insects, especially pollinators on Himalayan blackberry flowers and others just in the area. Several Pacific forktail damselflies were using the blackberry leaves as convenient perches to attack midges emerging from the nearby freshwater marsh. Like other damselflies, they have a relatively bulky thorax which houses their powerful flight muscles and a long thin abdomen. In this species, the abdomen is black, tipped in blue in terminal segments (2 segments in males, one in females). I saw mostly males (aqua-blue lower thorax and four blue dots on the upper thorax).
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Females can be quite variable in their coloration and their coloration can change as they age. A female will have the same thin black abdomen as a male, but with blue on only one of the terminal abdominal segments. In many females, the thorax is white with a thin black dorsal thoracic stripe.
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Steve
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Now I understand the coloration of some of the foamies in the "Vise" thread
 
Had a lunch guest on the lake today. He was perched on my shoulder. The one of the abdomen and wings was an attempt at a profile - couldn't see the screen. Didn't get the head, but kind of a cool pattern in its wings. I love how the tail ended up on its back in the 4th and 5th images.

Hope nobody minds I included one of a mayfly spinner that landed on my water bottle.

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CanoeGuy said:
Had a lunch guest on the lake today. He was perched on my shoulder. The one of the abdomen and wings was an attempt at a profile - couldn't see the screen. Didn't get the head, but kind of a cool pattern in its wings. I love how the tail ended up on its back in the 4th and 5th images.

Hope nobody minds I included one of a mayfly spinner that landed on my water bottle.

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That's really cool!
 
CanoeGuy said:
Had a lunch guest on the lake today. He was perched on my shoulder. The one of the abdomen and wings was an attempt at a profile - couldn't see the screen. Didn't get the head, but kind of a cool pattern in its wings. I love how the tail ended up on its back in the 4th and 5th images.

Hope nobody minds I included one of a mayfly spinner that landed on my water bottle.

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That 3rd pic could be a fishing rod cradled by a net if people weren't told otherwise.
 
What nice photos!
 
tkww said:
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And while looking up trying to get some pics, this flew over. I think these are one of the coolest planes ever.View attachment 161988
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Ok, from that angle, and with that paint job, the plane looks oddly phallic. But the blister on the bottom makes me wonder what they're snooping for? GPR /LIDAR mapping? Signals gathering? Oceanic surveillance?
 
Nice shot! Dragonflies in flight are tough targets @tkww. Usually there are a lot of them hunting at my place, but they've been scarce this year.
 
wanderingrichard said:
Ok, from that angle, and with that paint job, the plane looks oddly phallic. But the blister on the bottom makes me wonder what they're snooping for? GPR /LIDAR mapping? Signals gathering? Oceanic surveillance?
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It's one of the '10 Tanker Air Carrier' fleet--converted DC-10s that they use for firefighting. If you do some googling, there is some truly amazing footage of them doing fire retardant drops. For example.

However I am now realizing this isn't a DC-10, which would have the engines out on the wings (plus one in the tail). So not sure which aircraft this is.
 
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tkww said:
It's one of the '10 Tanker Air Carrier' fleet--converted DC-10s that they use for firefighting. If you do some googling, there is some truly amazing footage of them doing fire retardant drops. For example.

However I am now realizing this isn't a DC-10, which would have the engines out on the wings (plus one in the tail). So not sure which aircraft this is.
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My wife says it may be a DC-9
 
As summer winds down, adult dragonflies and damselflies will reach the ends of their life spasn. These master hunters of the air may soon be gone, but their equally voracious offspring will be terrorizing aquatic communities through the winter until it is their time to emerge next spring and summer. While on a recent birding / fishing trip on San Juan Island, I encountered many male white-faced meadowhawks that were zooming through their territories in search of a late-season date. This species ranges across the northern U.S. and southern Canada. A male has a brown thorax, a red abdomen, and black spots on the bottom edge of the abdomen.
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There are other dragonflies with similar color patterns, but I managed to capture a head-on image of the white-face that removed any doubt.
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In contrast to the bright red abdomen of a male, the abdomen of a female is more cryptic often yellowish or brown as you can see here.
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Steve
 
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