Mark Cassino Photography - Mark's Blog

Last weekend I paid a visit to the Allegan forest, to see what’s up with the dragonflies. It is amazing how in a few years the game area has been diminished. Obviously, the old farmstead is gone for good. But then I think of some of the forest clearings that I used to visit - between 46th and the river. They too are gone due to logging. Another favorite spot is also corrupted, as some nutter has mounted a pickup truck camper on poles in a clearing, and is trying to live back in the woods. Oh well – a few years ago a someone else was living out of his car not far from this spot, and he’s moved on after a few weeks. They always do.

Timing wasn’t ideal. I couldn’t get to the woods till mid afternoon on Sunday, and they were crowded and full of people. I say at least 5 people in the few hours I spent there – I miss the days when I could wander off and not see a soul till I got back on the highway. That late in the day dragonflies tend to settle into cover, but I found a few.

I had expected to see blue dashers, but only a few immature individuals were to be found. Here’s the first blue dasher of the season:

True to past years, Clubtails were abundant in the fields north of the river. This individual looks like a Splendid Clubtail, though I think I’ve indentified similar dragons as Rapids Clubtails, but the marks on the tail look like those of the Splendid. A couple photos:

Lastly – an immature or female Dot-Tailed Whiteface:

Thursday afternoon. As I walk across a parking lot, a dot tailed whiteface dragonfly darts it front of me. He land on a bright yellow parking line – fully mature, with an ebony body, one vibrant yellow dot on his tail, and a face as white as snow. I bent down to look at him, but he dashed off to the next yellow line. As I approached he dashed off once more – again to the next yellow line. And so we traversed the parking lot.

I haven’t seen many dragons this spring, so Sunday morning I went to the McClendon Trails to do something about that. The grass trails are built up around a well field that provides municipal water. It is ideal Odonate habitat- clean spring fed streams spill into a large shallow marsh, surrounded by acres of open grassland.

It was cool when I arrived – temperatures around 55F – but shortly after getting to the trails I was greeted by this Common Baskettail:

That was a nice start, but thing slowed down for a while. The next hour brought few dragonflies, though I wandered by the creek and marsh and observed numerous Crescentspot and Red Admiral butterflies. As the temperatures rose, a few damselflies became active, and I managed to get this shot of a an Eastern Forktail:

That was shot on the edge of a small wooded area – old apple trees mixed with scruffy pines and maples, remnants of the farm that once was there. A small clearing a few yards away provided the next opportunities – here’s a Four Spotted Skimmer, a species that is considered quite common but that I rarely see:

I’m a little disappointed in that shot - I had high hopes for it as I pressed the shutter button. Aside from the partially missing leg (something not obvious in the camera finder) I managed to clip just the tip of the wing in this exposure, which turns out to be the only really sharp shot of this subject. (It was bouncing around in the breeze.) Oh well – it’s a not a bad start for the season.

Following that, I encountered this last dragon of the day – I’m not sure what it is. The gap between the eyes suggests a Clubtail – family Gomphidae – but otherwise my field guides come up dry. The yellow marking on the second segment of all 6 legs is particularly distinctive.

Dragonfly season has begun – belatedly this year, but it is here now. More shots to come in the weeks ahead.

I visited Chicago earlier this week, mostly to sign books on Monday at the International Reading Association convention at McCormick Place. Tuesday and Wednesday were devoted to museums and otherwise hanging out. The Eggleston and Vernacular Photography exhibits at the Chicago Art Institute are highly recommended.

After the Chicago visit we moved on into Iowa and spend a few days there. I visited Stone City, famous from the Grant Wood painting, but was disappointed. It, like all other places, did not look as glorious in real life.

Well – here’s a couple of photos of a place – the city of Chicago. Taken from my hotel room (Chicago Hilton, 22nd floor), we have sun rise and sun set on the city on Tuesday, April 27, 2010.