Preservation Parks, Alumn Creek, Delaware, Ohio
~
DRAGON FLY
ragon fly, Anax junius (Green Darner) Usually found living in still water of ponds and streams.
Adult preys on midges, mosquitoes, caddis flies, and other flying insects. Naiad feeds on tadpoles,
small fish, and aquatic insects. Adult size averages 2 3/4-3 1/8" (70-80 mm); wingspan to 4 3/8"
(110 mm). The Green Darner is a large, strong flying dragonfly. It has a long blue, swollen abdomen, blue to
purplish gray, green thorax, yellowish-green face and wings with yellow tinges on the upper edge, darkening as
insect ages. Target like mark on face. Compound eyes often color of milk chocolate. Naiad, to 1 7/8" (48 mm), is dark greenish brown
reen darners are found throughout North America, Ohio, less common in the west.
In late August and September, (This one was probably an advance scout. or a
huge swarms of green darners, estimated between 500,000 and one million, have been recorded.
If the swarm is flying in every direction, they are feeding on gnats and midges; if they are
flying in a steady, constant direction, they are migrating. No one knows where this migration ends.
Scientists believe that there are two separate groups of green darners. One breeds and overwinters in Ohio.
The other (the smarter ones) migrates south (probably Florida) where they breed and die.
It is their young that then migrate to Ohio in the spring.
he Green Darner is one of the fastest and biggest of the common dragonflies.
They are fierce predators. There is one unconfirmed report of a Green Darner catching
and eating a small hummingbird! [Information borrowed liberally from
This website.]
no Dragonflies' were hurt while shooting these photos.
Dragon fly, Anax junius (Green Darner)
~
SKY and BIRDS
hen I used film, I could not just shoot interesting sky and birds at a whim...
They have always fascinated me... Or maybe I'm just easily distracted. With digital
I don't worry about the cost of processing. No camera tricks or image enhancements
(other than cropping and sizing for web), were used in the following shots... Although
I was very tempted... Enjoy.
~
Pretty in Pink, and white Magnolia Dreams
t's the street where you live, USA. This one happens to be the city of Grandview, Ohio in the spring. April of 2005, The Magnolia blossoms reminded me of when I was a kid. I think it was Oxford Avenue, just off Monroe Avenue, in Rochester N.Y. that had Magnolia trees all the way down the center. It just made me smile as I would pass by and smell the perfume of all those blossoms.
