On any given beautiful day

I'd rather be skulking around the edges of a pond, teeming with odes and fish, joined by two undergrads who fish and release and a Canada Goose pair with two little ones and several golf team members, than almost anywhere else I can name.

Especially since this is the cleanest body of water on the campus. No surprise since it's part of a fancy "boutique inn."

This time last year

I had documented Fragile Forktail (March 15), Blue Corporal (March 22), Green Darner (ovipositing March 22). Common Baskettail arrived on March 27.

As of now: Fragile Forktail.

Out of frustration, I went elsewhere to find something difficult to shoot. This is the result:

Nowhere near as good or as satisfying as odes, dadgummit.

Hiatus Ended with a Day of Bugs

I
Before I even turned off my car in the huge Walmart parking lot, I noticed a hawking Black Saddlebags, high, behind my car. I got out, I watched, and I noticed passersby looking at me, puzzled.

II
Two hours later, I walked down a hospital corridor after a visit. About 15 feet from the doorway, I noticed a Green Darner banging the ceiling light for escape. To the man at the doors, I said, "Dragonfly!" He said, "Yes!" I walked past him, opened the door, and followed the dragonfly outside.

III
Walking into the kitchen to check on dinner, I noticed the orange-red antennae of the largest of two bugs on the deck post. I grabbed a camera and headed out.

IV
On Facebook I posted, "Does this happen to everyone? I drove 18 miles to pick up a prescription at Walmart and before I could open my car door, I saw a Black Saddlebags cruising the lot, hawking. Then I drove those 18 miles home and visited an elderly friend in the hospital. When I walked down the corridor to leave, I saw a Green Darner in the hallway trying to get out. I opened the door and followed him. No pictures. Just a comment. Ever since I started noticing odonates some years ago, I see them everywhere." The first response, from the most famous American ode expert and author, read, "Indeed it does, Robley." Another watcher wrote, "Yes, and I am much happier for those moments."

V
Me too.

Damsel in Distress

I had only an hour with some sun, so I ran to Lake Cheston. Not much doing, I thought, until I happened upon this female damselfly.

She was so loaded down with mites that she merely alit on the sandy bank and stayed and stayed and stayed there. All of a sudden, an ant attacked and tumbled her. I managed to get her away from the ant (I admit I killed the bugger), and she perched on my finger a good long while. I had the wrong lens on the camera (of course) and managed what I could by way of photos.

Because I had an appointment and then work, I finally had to leave. I perched her on a broad leaf and left, feeling, I admit, quite guilty that I could do more nothing more.

When I came home and looked at my pictures, I was puzzled. I didn't believe what I was seeing. I posted photos on the Southeastern Odes Facebook group, and Dennis Paulson (who wrote Dragonflies and Damselflies of the East, among other guides) responded, " I think that was a Vesper Bluet, Enallagma vesperum. Clearly not in the best of condition, probably because of all those mites."

Holy cow! That makes three Vespers  in less than a week. And this one is a whole different body of water!

Small consolation, though, for the damselfly, who I feel certain has been dispatched by now.

Oh Yeah, Baby!

Well, this was fun: odes meet macro.

(Now I can't wait till I really learn to use the lens!)