Bryan's Posts About Dragonflies
Dirty Insect Image No. 3
Valentine’s Day greetings from a pair of Subarctic Bluets (Coenagrion interrogatum) making more Subarctic Bluets at a pond in central Saskatchewan last summer.
Life Among the Dead
Here in one of our great museum collections, I find warmth, diversity, shock, awe and innumerable stories of life on Earth.
The Year in Flight
They dwell on northern bogs and at ponds, and do what damselflies do: fly around, kill things and have sex. To casual observers, this pair of Subarctic Bluets (Coenagrion interrogatum) may appear no different than many other little blue damselflies…
Monhegan Report No. 2: The Other Migration
On the breath of Boreas, the Greek god of the north wind, migrants blew onto Monhegan Island Tuesday morning. No fallout, but we were busy with some of the place-name warblers: Tennessee, Nashville, Cape May. South winds Wednesday produced a quiet morning.
Dirty Insect Image No. 1
By Bryan on August 25, 2013 Perhaps this will be a new blog feature: insects, um, er, you know, making more insects. I’ve got scores of these. I’ll begin with this copulating pair of White-faced Meadowhawks (Sympetrum obtrusum), which I…
What’s This? No. 14
At long last my What’s This? challenge returns with a highlight of my summer road trip. This is among the most remarkable of its kind ever discovered. The first to name it wins fame and $5 off any of my…
DSA Update No. 6 (Final): Emeralds
Little else in nature rivals the scintillation, the explosion of green, expressed in the eyes of the dragonflies we call “Emeralds.” Here’s how it usually happens: You’re squishing around in a spruce bog or walking a woodland trail, and you…
DSA Update No. 5: Destination North
ONWARD to the Canadian Shield – the vast region of exposed precambrian rock on which reside infinite lakes, bogs sprinkled with orchids, coniferous woods, and, of course, lots of flying things. We’ve wrapped up the formal gathering of the Dragonfly…
DSA Update No. 4: Boreas
I’m north. How so? North enough for Boreal Snaketail (Ophiogomphus colubrinus). That’s him above. Yeah, I know, perhaps some of you aren’t getting excited about seeing a dragonfly “hanging” out like this. But for many of us here in Prince…
DSA Update No. 3 and What’s This? No. 13
My regular What’s This? photo challenge joins my updates from the annual meeting of the Dragonfly Society of the Americas here in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. So, yeah, you can probably determine what animal this belongs to. But name it to…
DSA Update No. 2: Northern Exposure
Nothing says I love you in the north like copulating Coenagrion interrogatum (Subarctic Bluets). I caught this pair in the act at the Gem Lakes area north of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. But another group, even more audacious than this, was the highlight…
DSA Update No. 1: Elusive Exclusive
You would almost never know that Stylurus notatus ranged far and wide across eastern portions of North America. Even the most skilled of us with nets rarely see this dragonfly. Hence its common name: Elusive Clubtail.
