summer

Blue Dragonfly Notes

Rae Spencer9 Comments

The blue on these mature dragonflies (I believe the top image is a Blue Dasher and the next is a Great Blue Skimmer) is called “pruinescence”. Often described as a powdery accumulation of pigment, the phenomenon of pruinescence is not confined to dragonflies. (I couldn’t find a definitive resource for a link, but this Wikipedia article contains some interesting observations.)

I tend to gravitate toward pruinose dragonflies, when I’m out with my camera. I like how the pale coloration exposes seams and joints, highlighting the intricate anatomy of these amazing insects.

(This male Great Blue Skimmer was a very patient subject. Most of my dragonfly photos are taken using the zoom feature, but he let me experiment with the macro setting, which produced the next image.)

While coloration and wing patterns catch my attention first, wounds hold my attention. This female Great Blue Skimmer has a rather typical set of wing tears, but the wounds on her face are unusual. I wondered if the loss of symmetry made her less attractive, in dragonfly terms.

One final note (completely off-topic):  I’m happy to report that the summer’s first cicadas arrived this week.

June Bugs, Escaping a Spider (Arachnophobia Alert!), and a Publication Note

Rae Spencer4 Comments

The June bug invasion continues.

This morning, one of the June bugs had a narrow escape after flying into an orb weaver web. (Look away!!) It was a failure of either bite or venom for the spider, a triumph of size and strength for the June bug.

Publication Note:  My poem “Means of Dispersal” appears in the July/August 2012 issue of Eclectica. Many thanks to poetry editor Jennifer Finstrom!

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.

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.

Summer is Here

Rae Spencer2 Comments

The thermostat insists that it is not as hot this week as it was last week, but I’m not convinced. The difference between high-nineties and triple digits is barely perceptible. Both are too hot for comfort.

Even so, the yard remains active. A new dove nest is taking shape, a new wave of dragonflies has arrived, and a clutch of praying mantises have hatched in the ginger lilies.

(I believe this is a Yellow-sided Skimmer.)

While chasing this praying mantis through the ginger lilies, I stumbled across a young katydid. Both creatures were very wary of the camera. It didn’t help that I tend to be too clumsy for stealth.