Dragonflies in the Neighbourhood

 I have been astonished by the variety of dragonfly species inhabiting a fairly small tract of land here in St-Laurent, Quebec.  I present them here with their common and scientific names:

Female or immature male Dot-tailed Whiteface, leucorrhinia intacta

Belted Whiteface, leucorrhinia proxima

Immature male Twelve-spotted Skimmer, libellula pulchella

Female Twelve-spotted Skimmer, libellula pulchella

Male Twelve-spotted Skimmer, libellula pulchella

Immature male Common Whitetail, plathemis lydia

Male Common Whitetail, plathemis lydia

Four-spotted Skimmer, libellula quadrimaculata

White-faced Meadowhawk, sympetrum obtrusum

Immature male or adult female Widow Skimmer, libellula luctuosa

Lance-tipped Darner, aeshna constricta

Canada Darner, aeshna canadensis - mating

Wandering Glider, pantala flavescens

Wandering Glider, pantala flavescens

Male Elusive Clubtail, stylurus notatus

Female Elusive Clubtail, stylurus notatus

Spot-winged Glider, pantala hymenaea

Ruby Meadowhawk, sympetrum rubicundulum

Immature Common Green Darner, anax junius

Female Swift River Cruiser, macromia illinoiensis

Male Swift River Cruiser, macromia illinoiensis

This last dragonfly inspired me to write the following verse:

EMERALD EYES

With emerald eyes

they scan the skies

And as they rise

I realize

with no surprise

what this implies - 

they're dragonflies!

Even More Moths in the Neighbourhood

I have found several new moths since my last "moth" post.  

I was very happy to find a Primrose Moth as, although I have seen these before, this was the first time I was able to see and photograph its funny little face. :-)

Here are three views of the beautiful Primrose Moth (schinia florida):

And here are some more lovely moths:

Salt-and-pepper Looper Moth, syngrapha rectangula

A type of Engrailed moth

Briseis Underwing Moth, catocala briseis

White Underwing, catocala relicta 

Possible Once-married Underwing, catocala unijuga

The Four Young Hawks - final post

As I've been photographing the young hawks and they have become more independent, I don't always see all four of them together.  On Saturday (August 1st), however, I was lucky enough to find them together at the same time, allowing me to get a shot of each separate individual.  

So I thought I would post a July 8th nestling shot (all four in the nest) and then their individual portraits as young adults.  I feel like a parent documenting the "graduation" of my children!  And I will now deal with the "empty nest" syndrome (literally) ... 

Comet NEOWISE and a Morning Surprise

After two unsuccessful attempts of finding comet NEOWISE, I finally got some photos of it on July 21st.  I delayed posting them in case I got better images in the last 10 days but, alas, I haven't been able to find it again!  

I feel extremely lucky to have found it (I say "found" and not "seen" because I could not see it with the naked eye) since I would have had to wait 6800 years for it to return ...

Here are the images I obtained when standing alone late at night in a nearby parking lot.  (I have labelled the first one to enable the viewer to spot the comet).

Note:  Please enlarge each image by clicking on it.

And then the next morning I was surprised by another exciting sky phenomenon:  a fire rainbow!  

In June of 2018 I did a blog post of a fire rainbow that you may wish to view again for the information on their formation: please click here.

Gypsy Moths

Female and male Gypsy Moths

Some information on these moths: Adult Gypsy moths emerge from their pupae in mid-summer. Female Gypsy moths do not fly although they have wings. Males do fly and can be seen fluttering about during the day searching out females in order to mate.  Neither the males nor the females have active digestive systems and therefore do not eat during their lives as moths. Gypsy moth females lay between 500 to 1,000 eggs that they cover in tan coloured hairs from their bodies.  These eggs hatch in spring into caterpillars.

This is a female Gypsy Moth which has just emerged from its pupa.  The wings need to unfurl.

Here you can see the wings have expanded a little more.

At this stage she begins to rock back and forth and shake her wings.

Now her beautiful, velvety wings are fully extended.

And finally, she folds them down which is her final "pose". It took a lot of energy for her to unfurl these wings and yet, sadly, she will never experience flight.

Here is a newly emerged male.  Check out those amazing antennae!! (Unfortunately I did not witness the early part of the process.)

Here is a female with her egg mass. (This photo was taken years earlier).

A Few Photos of the Maturing Hawks

The young hawks are now flying out of the cemetery and onto the adjacent college campus.  They like to swoop around the buildings. They are still dependent on the parents for food though and return to the "nest" tree where they call out.

This morning I went to see if they were around and only spotted one high in a tree among the branches.  I was rather disappointed that I wouldn't get any good shots and started to leave when I suddenly noticed one on the fence (between the two areas).  I liked the lighting and the background and was able to get pretty near to it for some portraits.  I hope you like them!

(Check out the fly on the hawk's shoulder).