a shimmering performance

I looked across our valley and tried to figure out what I was seeing. I was stunned! There were hundreds and hundreds of fast flying creatures zooming around the fields and pastures, shimmering in the early evening sunlight. The flying phenomenon stopped me in my tracks. Were they lightening bugs? I took a short video, and then walked down to the field for a closer look. 

best viewed while looking over by the fence
lower part of the dark pines
(13 sec)

After I figured out what was dancing before my eyes, I hustled back to the house to grab my camera. That caught Brad's attention. He came outside to see what was going on "are those all Hummers?" 

I was like a kid in a candy store! Natures show lasted around 10-15 minutes, then poof!! They were gone. Capturing the ever changing super fast magical shimmer performance of the Green Darner Dragonfly, was one of the hardest things I've attempted to photograph. What an incredible experience!! 

mystical shimmering
(enlarge to see one dragonfly, middle far right)

"The common, huge green or blue dragonfly most often seen in heavy numbers during late summer and fall, the green darner is known as one of our few migrating insects. Large hatches may occur simultaneously during August, with tens of thousands of insects moving south along with monarchs into fall."

9/3/21

Sometimes you get an unexpected uplifting surprise, when you need it the most.  

winged wonders

I took advantage of a break from Summers less than desirable weather offerings, and enjoyed getting reacquainted with the ever changing ecosystem we call our property. We had a string of wet weather, that produced interesting mushrooms. The very next day the labs & I hiked the property again, and they were all gone. So quickly.

I hauled my camera and didn't observe any changes. Nothing caught my eye. That is always a drag. Nothing like hauling a heavy camera around for nothing. It happens, to me.

It brightened my walk, when winged wonders started teasing me with their random flight patterns.Talk about challenging action!! If you ever want a good laugh, watch someone trying to take a photo of a butterfly. If it's me, you might want to cover your ears.

After moving and leaving my beloved pond behind, I thought my dragonfly photography days were over. They are not as colorful here, but we have a lot of these fluttering all over the place:

Widow Skimmer link

I couldn't figure out why my camera had such a hard time focusing on a different dragonfly that caught my attention. After taking a closer look, I know why. Much of the wings are transparent. Not the best photo, but I am keeping it after how hard I tried. The transparent wings are so cool! 

no luck identifying it

In addition to dragonflies, I tried to photograph orange butterflies over the span of several days. They are sassy! So much, that I swear I heard one say "ohhh - you want to get closer to me" as it tried to land on my face!! I never did get a photo of it.

I was thrilled to find another orange butterfly soaking up the sun just outside our front door:

look at that curl!!

hellooo!

Once again, not much luck identifying an orange butterfly with those large spots. What is it? Besides pretty. The closest I found was a Great Spangled Fritillary. I used this link and also a great WI Butterfly website that keeps track of them. People report sightings here who knew?

A faded Red-spotted Purple (?) butterfly that has seen better days

We have a lot of butterflies at the bottom of our property where I encourage leaving some thistles and milkweeds growing for them. It is a hard balance, when trying to maintain weed free hay fields & pastures.

 

The Monarchs and Viceroys continue to avoid my camera, flying fast and high. Randomly. The dogs don't help with their constant "watcha looking at" behavior. Every. Single. Time I get close...yep, cover your ears. I should just leave the dogs in the house, but that is hard for me. They love our walks as much or more than I do.

We were back to high temps for the long July 4th holiday weekend. Including very de-motivating humidity and general Summer way too hot yuckiness. Bleh. We got rain yesterday and today it is nice and cool! I am off for a hike with the labs, to see what we can see.

Have a great day!!