Mark Cassino Photography - Mark's Blog

This summer has been slow to unfold – and as a result Blue Dashers (and other Odonates) have been a bit late to appear. But here’s a couple of shots of Blue Dashers from a couple weeks ago

:

July. Summer has officially arrived. Long days come and go like waves rolling on the sea. Since I am working now I don’t visit the Allegan Forest as often as I use to, but still make it out there at least once a week, usually visiting a few favorite places.

It’s a cool, wet summer, and the sandy savannah is lush and green. The pond near the old farmstead has stopped rising, but shows no signs of receding back to being a simple marsh. It’s hard to believe that last year at this time deer would spash across the shallow marsh - and in years past I would walk through high grass where now these is open water.

Some of the trees that have been inundated since this spring are finally giving in to being underwater. Most still look fine, but here there trees and bushes turn pale green, then brown, as they succumb to the new water level.

Along the pond’s edge I regularly see raccoons scurrying about in the shallow water, probably looking for frogs to dine on. When the raccoons spot me they make for the nearest tree. The sound of water draining off their fur coat follows them as the climb up the branches – it’s like the sound of a dish rag being drained into a sink full of water.

A small group of Canada geese have also taken up residence in the pond. They glide away into the shallow water almost silently. They hang out in a grassy area, not far from the patch of wild raspberries that reached it’s apex this time last summer – but this year is completely underwater.

Sorry – I’ve seen no snakes these last few weeks.

Among the Odonates, Dot Tailed Whitefaces are still abundant, though the larger Twelve Spotted Skimmers and Common Whitetails are now firmly established. Blue dashers have finally appeared. Calico Pennants and Spangled Skimmers have been around for a while. I have yet to see a Halloween Pennant yet this year – a species that is usually common and abundant. Surly they will arrive soon.

Meadowhawk Dragonflies have arrived, though. They are still in their immature gold and black colors, but I spotted a few that are just taking on a reddish orange glow – a shadow of the vibrant color they will soon bear.

The coreopsis has come and gone. A few red spotted purple butterflies and a very few great spangled fritillaries and tiger swallowtails hit the yellow flowers. During the week or two when the coreopsis is at its peak I to try to get photos of perching dragonflies with the yellow wildflowers in the background – but this year saw no luck with that. The dragons are late in arriving.

Vetch would normally be blooming this time of year, and in some places small patches of it manage to eek out a few purple flowers. But the fields that I visit were mowed last summer, and that has beaten the vetch back significantly.

Now in early July butterfly weed is blooming. I always hope to find some stunning butterflies on these orange flowers - last weekend all I managed to come up with was this rather ragged old butterfly making its way along the prairie.

North of the river is still home to a good number of large Rapid Midland Clubtails. Blue dashers have begun to appear in these fields as well, and from time to time, I spot a large spiketail or two, but have yet to get a photo of them.

Overall, the lazy summer days continue to roll out across the forest and the Pine Barrens. Maybe due to the wet weather, I see more wildlife than usually – raccoons, deer, turkey, and coyotes. They all enjoy the long and bountiful days of this season. Like I said - I’m only here to photograph the dragonflies…

Last weekend I managed to get a few nice Blue Dasher photos, but I haven’t had a chance to prep them and get them up on the blog here. So, here are a couple of retrospective shots from the archives that I prepped a while back.

These photos were taken in late June, 2008, in a field off 44th Street that was a riot of blue vetch. Like so many other fields in the Allegan State Game Area, this one was just a square, cut out of the woods, with woods surrounding three sides and the road bounding the fourth.

These blue dashers are always striking subjects, and in this case I tried to get him lined up with the hazy bluish vetch in the background. I’m looking forward to photographing these creatures again, once the summer warms.

Last week I found myself in the flatlands of Indiana. The corn was just getting started. This place was pretty flat - the earth seemed to stretch out forever in all directions. At day’s end the setting sun lingered on the horizon. With no hills or buildings to obscure it; sunset lasted forever, bathing the land in the sweet light that comes at the end of a long summer’s day.

Here’s a snapshot of some trees in a place where the grass was left to grow long.

That little Nikon camera really came through with this shot. I pulled a 12 x 18 inch print of this image on the Epson 3800. The quality is great - good enough to exhibit - and I supect that the image will hold up for a 16 x 22 inch print. I can’t ask for much more form any digital camera at this point, but from a compact point and shoot? That’s great.

Last Sunday I paid another visit to the McLinden Trails. This park is always a great place for dragonflies – it seems that I can get more photos here in an hour than I can muster in the Allegan Game Area in a whole day.

This visit was brought two pleasant surprises – the first sightings of the season (for me) of blue dashers and meadowhawk dragonflies.

Things are moving slowly this year, and the appearance of both species seems to be at least two weeks later than in prior years. (Checking the archives here confirms that.) And even now, I’ve only seen a few individuals of each species. Here’s a shot of the first blue dasher of 2009:

This subject still has immature coloration – it will probably be a couple of weeks before they show up in their blue and yellow splendor.

And here’s one of the two immature meadowhawks I spotted on Sunday – it obligingly posed on a flower:

I can’t identify the species from immature individuals – it expect it will be one of the “red’ meadowhawks – either a ruby, whiteface, or cherry faced meadowhawk. In a few days it will be flying around in its scarlet finery.

Aside from new sightings, I also spotted several species that are now well established. Aside from the Dot Tailed Whitefaces and Rapids Midland Clubtails, I also spotted several Widow Skimmers, including several males sporting the immature male markings, with black bands on the inseides of their wings. In time in smaller white bank will appear outside of the black bands.

Here’s a shot of a male wideow -if you look closely, you can see a hint of the white markings just starting to appear in the male’s wings:

And here are two female (or immature) Spangled Skimmers:

Dragonflies weren’t the only subject of the day – the trails were full of butterflies, including skippers, cabbage whites, and the occasional fritillary and red spotted purple. Here’s a snap of a cabbage white on a white flower:

As a parting shot – another image of the immature meadowhawk:

Note to self - visit McLindon more often!

I’ve been carrying the Nikon Coopix P6000 with me as I travel around the midwest. Here’s a shot of the wild Rocky River - a remote wilderness nestled in a place called Cleveland… :-)

Continuing on with the wildflower round up - Jack in the Pulpit. I don’t run into these flowers as often as I used to, and it seems to be even rarer to find one in good shape for photographing. This one is from May 1, 2009.

A week ago Sunday I made a brief trip to the McLindon Trails to look for dragonflies. The many acres of grass and fresh, clean water – both a pond and a fast flowing brook – make this place a haven for dragonflies.

I arrived under heavy, overcast skies, with thunder rumbling in the distance. As expected, many species were out in abundance, and Calico Pennants, in particular, were very abundant. In the short time I had before the rain settled in, I managed these few shots of this late spring / early summer dragonfly.