Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Non-Birding Photos

Pulling some more "old" photos out of my hat, this time from last week's lunchtime trip to Woodland Trails West Park.

All the good birding shots made it into last week's post. Here are some of the "rest of the trip" captures.

(Click on any image to enlarge for more detail.)

click image to enlargeGulf Fritillary (Agraulis vanillae)

And an action shot...

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I was also able to capture a couple of cool autumn-colored dragonflies. (I'm going to have to invest in a decent insect guide to help in identifying dragonflies and such.)

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That last one has to be my favorite of the batch.

UPDATE: That second dragonfly has been identified as a Carolina Saddlebag (Tramea carolina). Thanks for the help, Susan!

4 comments:

Alan Pulley said...

Great shots Kyle! The cooler weather here in VA has shut-down all the butterfly activity.

Susan Gets Native said...

I don't claim to know every dragonfly, but that last one looks like one of the "saddlebag" ones. Maybe you can do a search with that?

*Susan, who is usually no help at all

Kyle said...

Alan- Prior to the cool front that moved in on Monday, we were definitely seeing a rise in our butterfly numbers. I've heard from quite a few people who reported "swarms" of Monarchs and Gulf Fritillaries in their yards over the past week. Unfortunately, I've missed most of them. Haven't come across a single Monarch this fall when I had my camera at hand. Argh!


Susan- A very big help, actually, and thanks! With that hint I was able to find them on BugGuide and pretty positively identify it as a Carolina Saddlebag. Muchas gracias!

Vickie said...

Enjoyed these photos. I have always loved butterflies and dragonflies. The fritallary is familiar, but the two dragonflies posted are new for me. They are beautiful.