A Swarm of Dragons

Every year about this time our yard is swarming with Blue Darner Dragonflies.  It's quite a sight to see several plus dozen flying around at one time.  They zip across the deck in front of you and fly around your head as you walk across the lawn, or even perhaps land on you for a brief rest.  We have plenty of mosquitoes to feed them, and I am very happy to see them on the hunt.  I'm happy to see one land on a flower, and even happier when they stick around long enough for me to get my camera focused on them.  I've gotten lots of photos with blurry dragons or of the bare flower they were just recently sitting on.  Occasionally though it all comes together.

I am linking up with Eileen's Saturday's Critters.

The Hummingbird Moth and the Dragon

Saturday afternoon I was chasing a Hummingbird Moth who was having trouble deciding on just what flavor flower he wanted to feast on.

He landed on a different flower pot, but it was already occupied by a dragonfly, so he went on his merry way.

I, however, stopped to take a few more photos of the Blue Darner Dragonfly before he flew away.

The Blue Darners have been a bit slow in appearing this year, probably because of the record rainfall we've been receiving.  More and more are gradually appearing and I saw quite a few hunting in our yard today.  I'm always glad to see them appear and scarf up all the many bugs that are in the yard!

Dragonflies and Midnight Skies

It's the time of year when we're seeing lots of dragonflies.  The Four-spotted Skimmer is one of the first to emerge in the spring.  We're especially glad to see the dragonflies emerge because they eat mosquitoes, a critter we have in abundance.

I added a poster edge in the photo below to highlight the lovely patterns in the dragonfly's wings.

We are at the summer solstice, the longest day of the year.  We have 21 hours and 49 minutes between sunrise and sunset, and it doesn't get dark in those few hours in between.  The photos below were taken at midnight.  Lots of activities are going on this weekend, including a 10k Midnight Sun Run, a Minor League baseball game starting at 10:00 p.m. with no artificial lights, a Midnight Sun Festival on Sunday, and many, many more activities celebrating the long hours of daylight.

I'm linking up with Skywatch

and Eileen's Saturday Critters.

A Touch of Summer

Gilded Dragon

Dragonfly Days

I always look forward to seeing dragonflies in my yard.  Alaska has a huge mosquito population, and dragonflies can capture around 300 insects a day, a good many of which will be mosquitoes.  Hooray for dragonflies!  

The dragonfly in the first four photos is a Four-spotted Skimmer.  It is about 1.6 inches long, and is one of the first dragonflies to emerge in the spring.

The dragonfly below is a Boreal Whiteface and is about 1.4 inches long.

A little cropping and a poster filter show the intricate wing patterns.

Dragonflies

We have a lot of mosquitoes here in Alaska, and I am always delighted to see dragonflies out hunting for those pesky mosquitoes in my yard.  They can catch around 300 insects a day, so they are very welcome!  We don't have the variety of dragonflies here that many other places do, with only 30 species in all of Alaska.  Generally the first to appear in the spring is the Whiteface, with several very similar species, the Hudsonian, Boreal, and Belted.  The female has yellow spots and the males red.  I'm no expert and am relying on my Dragonflies of Alaska book for identification, so I hope I've got these all correct!

By far the ones I see the most of are the Blue Darners.  There are Zigzag, Azure, Lake, Subarctic, Sedge, Paddle-tailed, and Variable Darners in that category, and the differences are very slight.  I make no attempt to identify them further than Blue Darner.  In the middle of June they appear, and I can look across my lawn and see two or three dozen at a time, all hunting for mosquitoes and other bugs.  I love it!  They cruise over the lawn and deck, and I spend a lot of time trying to photograph them.  

Then we see a smaller dragonfly, the Cherry-faced Meadowlark.  I believe the one I saw today is a juvenile as it appears more yellow-brown than red.

The Blue Darners in my header and below--those photos were taken last July.  With the beautiful backdrop of the gladiolas that the dragonflies seemed to love and were just hanging out on, I just had to point my camera and click the shutter.  What a wonderful time I had!

Wedgewood Wildlife Sanctuary and Wander Lake Trail

Yesterday we followed the Taiga Trail to Wander Lake in the Wedgewood Wildlife Sanctuary. Today we are following the Wander Lake Trail that goes all around the lake. We still were seeing a lot of wildflowers, although now there were also plants that thrive along the water. We saw more signs describing the wildlife that inhabits the area. The signs are very well done and fit well in the landscape. The one below discusses bird migration. Millions of birds migrate to nest in Alaska from six continents, the exception being Europe. The Arctic Tern flies the longest distance, 22,000 miles round trip from Antarctica to the Arctic and back each year.

It was the middle of the afternoon and we didn't see much bird activity. There was one group of birds that was a bit of stretch for the upper end of my 70-300mm lens. By cropping quite a bit I came up with a nice image, but I can't ID the bird for sure. This time of year there are a lot of juveniles in the mix, so it makes it even harder. I think it might be a Red-necked Grebe. Even without an ID, I still like the reflections and shadows on the water.

Along the trail there were many Dragonflies. This one is a Blue Darner, probably a Lake Darner because of the proximity of the lake.

We had made our way more than halfway around the lake when we heard the distinctive call of Sandhill Cranes. We saw a couple of pairs flying over the trees from the direction of Creamer's Field.

I kept shooting as they flew past us and landed on an island in the lake near where we had been a while before. That is the way it goes when you are on a nature trail. It's all the luck of the draw whether you are in the right place at the right time.

We decided to go on rather than go back and try to get a closer shot of the Cranes. We went around the lake and came to a very nice observation platform. There is also a platform in the beginning stages of construction across the lake. From the platform we had a good view of a beaver dam.

Along the trail we spotted a tree that had been felled by a beaver. It is on the uphill side of the trail from the lake, but at some point it was probably closer to the water.

From the observation platform we could see a few birds in the distance, but not any that I could get a good shot of. It was a beautiful day for lake reflections though.

The clouds were reflected in the water, and I think you could turn the next photo upside down and it would still look the same.

We enjoyed the peaceful day for a while on the observation platform, and then headed up the trail into a little different ecosystem, a mix of Birch, Cottonwoods, and White Spruce. A squirrel chattered at us for invading its space and we could hear some bird song. There were still wildflowers and mushrooms in the trees, but a little different mix. We were soon back at the trail head.

We will definitely keep this on our list of places to go. Soon the southward migration will begin, and I think Wander Lake will be a good place to go to see a variety of birds as they head south.