Vermillion Creek & Burke Lake Panoramas

Burke Lake Black And White

Looking Up

Water Over The Leaves

A few fallen autumn leaves caught in the swirling Vemillion Creek at Rose Lake.

A Banner Darner Day

Last weekend, I spent some time at Rose Lake State Wildlife Area trying to photograph the last good dragonflies of the season.  With the cool and much shorter autumn days arriving, the dragonflies will be scarcer each day we get closer to winter.  I ventured out to the little two-acre clearing in the middle of the forest where I always have good luck finding dragonflies.  That day was no exception.  I photographed a number of dragonflies, including the best closeups of Lance-Tipped Darners that I have ever gotten.  I was also surprised the sighting of both a male and female Shadow Darner (the female is the brownish dragonfly, third picture up from the bottom) and a few Canada Darners.  Both the Shadow and Canada Darners have this part of the state in their range, but I have never seen either this far south.

Fall Forest Fungi

Grey Comma Butterfly

The Eyes Have It

Dragonfly eyes never cease to amaze me.  I like being able to get up as close as I can to photograph the eyes, especially when the light is at the right angle to capture outline of the the individual lenses.  Some species of dragonflies will remain still enough to allow me to get close enough to get good pictures.  Others are more skittish and fly away as soon as you get too close.

Hoppy Wednesday

Leapin' Leopard Frogs

The other day at Rose Lake, the leopard frogs were all over the place.  As you walked down the trail they would leap great distances to get out of the way.

Dragonfly Season Has Arrived

On Saturday, I had a very short window of time to head out to Rose Lake State Wildlife Research Area.  I had gone out to look for any late Ringed Boghaunter dragonflies that might still be flying, but found none.  However, the woods was alive with several other species, a number of which I had the chance to capture images.  The little open space in the middle of the woods that so often is swarming with dragonflies did not disappoint.  I counted nine separate species in just a short period of time and photographed five of them.  Other than the two species of Clubtail dragonflies I saw, all the other species had numerous individual dragonflies buzzing around the clearing.  I really like this area as it always seems so alive and it amazes me how diverse it is.  It would be an ideal place for someone just beginning to study dragonflies to visit.

Spring Woodland Blooms

Butterfly Camouflage

The ventral wings (bottom or closed side) of many butterfly wings has a less colorful, mottled design that help butterflies blend in with their surroundings.  Both the Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) above and the Eastern Comma (Polygonia comma) below have very brightly colored dorsal wings (upper or open side).  The Red Admiral has red and white stripes, which you can partially see in the photograph above.  The Eastern Comma has several shades of bright oranges and yellows.  When their wings are closed, you have a much harder time seeing them.

Early Fern

More Spring Snakes

I have encountered more snakes this spring than in past years.  Mostly I find Garter Snakes like are pictured below, but I recently came across what I believe to be Northern Water Snake, as shown above.  It was very aggressive when I came upon it along the trail, which is a trait of this species of snake.

The Great Boghaunter Hunt 2015

Female Ringed Boghaunter

After an unsuccessful day of trying to track down a Ringed Boghaunter (Williamsonia lintneri) Dragonfly that would hold still enough for a photograph yesterday, I had success today in finding one.  Its very shiny wings and milky grey eyes indicate that it is fairly young.  I only saw this one and a mating pair that flew away to parts unknown today, so I hope that this simply means that it is still too early for them to be out in large numbers like last spring.  I photographed this one a distance from the bog where they were prevalent last year and where I encountered a few yesterday.  With the continued warm weather this coming week, I shall venture out to Rose Lake later to see if more have emerged.

While I was out yesterday, I ran into two other Boghaunter hunters, Mark O'Brien and Darrin O'Brien.  They had driven up from the Ann Arbor area to see if they could net a specimen or two.  It sounds like a while after I had moved on to another location, Darrin finally captured one in his net.  Mark also gave me some interesting tidbits about the habitat of the Hine's Emerald Dragonfly, an endangered species.  A prime habitat for these is within a few miles of our cabin up north.  I hope that with this knowledge, I can photograph this species in June when I spend a week up north.  It was nice to finally put faces with names I have seen on other websites and blogs related to dragonflies in Michigan.  I am also excited that my meager attempts to photograph insects that I think are fascinating has helped expand the knowledge about a rare species in Michigan.

I also came across other dragonflies again today, including Dot-tailed Whitefaces (Leucorrhinia intacta), more Beaverpond Baskettails, and a few male Common Green Darners (Anax junius).  The Whitefaces are a similar size as the Boghaunters and fly in the same general area, so I chased a few of them today that I had initially hoped were the Boghaunters.

Female Dot-tailed Whiteface Dragonfly

Male Beaverpond Baskettail Dragonfly