Dragonfly Weather

Rae Spencer5 Comments

The heatwave continues. Every so often, an afternoon thunderstorm brings brief relief, but these storms are too scattered to offer any reliable remedy. The only creatures who seem to thrive are dragonflies.

My camera struggles in this weather. The lens fogs, whenever I step outside, and the camera’s body absorbs so much sunlight that it actually becomes uncomfortable to hold. I’m still getting my twenty minutes per day, but time in the yard is increasingly forced. Perhaps I’ll try the park, where a stretch of beach and plenty of shade might defuse the relentless heat.

Northern Cardinal with Feather Loss

Rae Spencer3 Comments

I don’t know if this cardinal is undergoing a normal (extreme) molt, or if he has some kind of medical condition. Whatever the cause, this kind of feather loss seems to be common.

So Many Dragonflies!

Rae Spencer6 Comments

More and more dragonflies! (As usual, the identifications are mostly guesswork. Please comment to confirm or correct!)

Male Great Blue Skimmer?

Female Great Blue Skimmer

Needham’s Skimmer

Unknown. (Possibly one of the skimmers?)

Female Eastern Amberwing

Female Eastern Amberwing

June Bugs

Rae Spencer2 Comments

For me, “June bug” is synonymous with “summer”. I have vivid memories of a yard teeming with these large beetles, loud with the drone of their wings. There was a trick to catching them, a certain turn in their flight that signaled they were landing. Watch, watch, watch, then race across the yard to the spot where one had just disappeared into the grass. I remember the pinch and scratch of their legs and the sharp odor they left on my hands.

Here in Virginia, summer after summer has passed with no June bugs. Since leaving Tennessee, I’ve only seen one or two. Until this week. Seemingly out of nowhere, dozens of them have buzzed into the yard. It’s been a blissful dose of nostalgia, watching them come and go, listening to their heavy flight. I’m no longer interested in catching them, except with my camera, but I smell them on my skin again. Their unexpected arrival is a breezy memory that makes me yearn for another sprint through the sunlit yard of my youth.

It never occurred to me, before beginning this post, that what I know as a June bug might not be the same insect that everyone knows as a June bug. For clarification, when I say “June bug”, I actually mean green June beetle.

To further complicate matters, I photographed the next beetle on the same day, thinking it was simply a small individual of the same species. Turns out, this is probably an entirely different species, an Emerald Euphoria beetle.

A few years ago, Mother called me after hearing a song on the radio called “Junebug Waltz”. She loved the song so much that she searched out the CD, It Don’t Mean I Don’t Love You by Hurray for the Riff Raff. I’m grateful to her for introducing me to the song, and the group.

Rainy Respite

Rae Spencer5 Comments

This moth took shelter on our porch as a morning thunderstorm growled through the area. After the storm calmed, a steady rain settled over the yard, lasting all afternoon. It was a pleasant, sleepy kind of rain, gradually washing away the weekend’s heat and dust. Washing away the weekend’s bees and dragonflies, too, for the moment.

I believe the first dragonfly is an Eastern Pondhawk, and the second a Great Blue Skimmer. I haven’t found a possible match for the first moth, but the second seems to be a Grape Leaffolder moth. (I’m gaining confidence with dragonflies, but I’m a complete beginner with moths. Please comment with confirmations or corrections!)