Dragonfly Names

I have names for the dragonflies.  I stopped by the Florida Botanical Gardens yesterday and picked up National Audubon Society Field Guide To Florida



The above is the Halloween Pennant

The male Blue Dasher

Male Eastern Pondhawk taken at work

Female Eastern Pondhawk

A Male Roseate Skimmer

The Elderberry Tree

One of our Elderberry Trees has been the place to be seen this weekend. As I showed you in the last post the Nutmeg Mannikin made a visit. Thanks to Katie, I know this birds name, and that he is, as I suspected, an exotic bird here in FL.

I tried getting a picture of the Mockingbirds feeding their "little" one. It was amusing watching a bird bigger than his parents, waiting with open mouth to be fed. He had a habbit of perching in an area in front of the sun.

All weekend the Red-bellied Woodpecker has been visiting the tree. As you can see he's a shy thing.

One visiter to the back yard wasn't a bird, but another dragonfly. Yes you are stuck looking at another dragonfly.

I Need Help

You would think this bird would be easy to identify. Wrong! I still haven't figured out what he/she is. Katie I need your help. I have slowly looked over the pictures in my copy of National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds 3 times, and still I cannot find the name for this bird.

The bird wasn't even my subject. He/she came into view as I was trying to take a picture of the Downy Woodpecker in my back yard.

I spotted a couple of these woodpeckers at work a few months ago, but they were too far up in the tree to get a good shot.

Tonight I got lucky. The camera was sitting on the kitchen table when I noticed them hanging around. There were two. This one wanted to hide behind branches.

Speaking of hiding behind branches. I missed getting a really good shot of a Red-shouldered Hawk yesterday. I was calling Linda to tell her I was leaving work at my scheduled time, instead of 2 hours later. As I hung up the phone and unlocked the car I noticed him bathing in the retention pond. By the time I got the camera out, he had moved to a tree. Everytime I moved to get a better view of him, he would fly higher into the tree, always staying hiden by foliage. (It didn't help that the camera had been sitting in an air conditioned room all day, and the lens fogged up on me.) He then made his way to another tree aproximately 100 yards from me. I will get a good shot of him one day.

Patience Pays Off

The drogonfly came back. His favorite bugs must live on the dead branch of the plumbago. Charlie would scare him off, and I would stand still waiting for him to take a rest. Each time he stopped it was on this branch.

While waiting for the dragon fly to come back, I got shots of Susie and Charlie.


Susie just loves the sun.


I had a discussion with Debbie the other day. I found a camera that might be even better than owning a DSLR. It has an 18 zoom on it, which is like having a 500 mm lens attached. I said, "I'll wait 'till the end of the year. The prices will come down."

She played devil's advocate and asked, "what happens if it comes down and a DSLR comes down?"

The Giant Swallowtail in my yard made the decision for me. He was still. I ran over to get a patio chair to stand on, because he was so high up in the bushes. I only got off one shot. My autofocus wanted to focus in on the leaves surrounding him. I need a camera that I can turn off the auto focus and manually focus. When the prices come down it will be the DSLR. Even though a 500 mm lens will cost me a fortune.

The sports mode on my camera can't stop these wings.

I've got to stop fooling around. I have work to do, luandry and finishing the bathroom.

Magenta Dragonfly

I just love watching these things fly around the backyard. You most likely won't get a reprieve from this until I get a picture of the blue and red ones that zip around the yard. This guy didn't land in an prime lighting area.

Close Encounter on Friday the 20

The one day I didn't bring my camera to work, a turtle came up out of Lake Seminole to find a place to lay eggs. I only had my camera on my phone to take a picture. I finally retrieved it from the phone.


She had found a place. 2 hours later I was able to go home for lunch, get my camera and get another picture of her. I didn't want to get too close.

She's so ugly she's almost cute.

Polydamus Swallowtail

This butterfly is really hard to capture. He just doesn't want to stay still.


Another View


Whoops this isn't a butterfly. It's a hungry puppy.