Lazy Days of Summer

I love it when life is a little slow and I can sit on the edge of a pond and take my time drawing a dragonfly.  This darner is flying in front of a cattail that is just heading out.  The bottom half of the cone will thicken and turn a rich, dark brown. The top half is pollen .... lots of pollen.  When I walk amongst the cattail fronds I'm showered with pollen.

Two from the Oregon Coast

Bandon, Oregon:  I sat down next to the river, about a mile before it flows into the Pacific -- 4 PM.
Tide is in.  It's a warm, sticky day, unusual for the Oregon Coast.  Two gulls caught my eye, then the cormorant flew past.  Finally the sparrows got comfortable with my presence and sang to me.  Such a nice place to sketch!

And on a different day........

Lagoon Campground:  An eight-spotted skimmer hangs low over the water.  She is somewhat out of the wind that blows inland from the Pacific.  The wind brings coolness to any spot not sheltered.  

BALTIC DRAGONFLIES

 

I've been designing a birthday card for my daughter and this is my preliminary sketch in coloured pencils. I used some of my photos taken in Sweden a couple of years ago as my inspiration as well as a real dragonfly that stowed away in our camper car and now carefully stored in a plastic box.  I have started on a watercolour version but I need to work on it for a few days before I decide if it's good enough!

Meadowhawk

Aug 19, 2012  Umpqua National Forest, Oregon, USA

After looking carefully, we found only one dragonfly at 'WC3073' -- that is a forest service code for identifying a pump chance, a place where firefighter can fill their trucks with water.  WC3073 is a small pool fed by an even smaller stream.  Where there is water we usually find dragonflies.

I know right away this a female meadowhawk, but which kind?  She looks somewhat like the common 'striped meadow hawk', but not quite.  Fortunately she is very cooperative.  When she zooms out from her perch she returns to the same dried out head of spirea.  She is obviously hunting.

Up goes her abdomen in typical 'obelisking' position.  When dragonflies are warm they point their abdomen towards the sun so less sunlight hits their body.  I'm a little surprised to see her doing that.  It doesn't seem that hot.

I can't help but hope she is one of the few dragonflies I've yet to see in Douglas County ... red pterostigma with yellow outers / tiny blush of amber at the base of her wings / two tones eyes / black zig-zag pattern along her abdomen.  I sketch.  Dale photographs.  She succeeds in catching a small insect and chews it up quickly.  We'll be able to figure her out when we get home.

... She is a cherry-faced meadowhawk.  I've seen them before, but since they are only found in the high country here, I'm not very familiar with them.

Dragonflies

Our time in Sweden, although short, was full of wonderful encounters and new places and landscapes.  While camping near Kalmar on the Baltic coast we were priveleged to see many dragonflies at close quarters.  They seemed almost tame and would sit on my finger without fear!
While walking along the shore one evening we came across this wooden box and puzzled over it's use until I noticed some dead looking insects on the outside.  I picked one up for closer inspection  and then noticed one with the insect in the process of emerging so took some photos to draw from later.  I was particularly interested to see the fine white hairs that supported the dragonfly as it started to open out the wings.  When we arrived home 4 weeks later, imagine my surprise when I found one of the creatures had stowed away in the camping car, sadly no longer alive, but now carefully preserved in a box to use for more drawings in the future!

Dragonfly Emerging

Two weeks ago I was wandering on the edge of a little pond photographing dragonflies when I spotted this nymph just breaking open.  Dragonfly nymphs mature underwater and climb out when ready for the dragonfly to emerge.   

I immediately called my husband over so he could photograph while I hurried to get my stool and sketchbook.  I had to work fairly quickly on each sketch, first because things were happening fairly quickly, and then we were starting to loose our light.  Because it was getting dark we didn’t wait for the dragonfly to spread its wings, but I’ve seen it happen on others.  Once the wings are unfurled and full size, they suddenly open.  He’ll never close them again.

1. By the time I got back with my sketchbook, the dragonfly was half out of the nymph casing.
2. Its eyes look mushy and miss-shaped at first, but soon will be awesome 
3. Initially its wings are tiny and folded like an accordion ever so tightly
4. Gradually the wings unfurl.  
5. After the wings are starting to look like wings, its abdomen starts to lengthen
6. Wings and abdomen still growing
7. The dragonfly seems to be flexing one leg joint after another
8. Abdomen is taking the shape of an adult’s

9.  After half an hour of not much happening, the dragonfly starts slowly climbing the cattail, about an inch a minute.  Wings are still straight back

I sketched this one today.  When I found it the dragonfly had recently emerged and was waiting just a few minutes longer before flying.  Their wings need to harden before good flight is possible.  

I’m not sure what kind of dragonfly either of these are, probably a chalk-fronted corporal or an American emerald.  They fly before they have good color.  Sometimes I can tell the species, and sometimes I can’t.  

Saffron-winged Meadowhawk

I spend a lot of time watching and photographing dragonflies, but not enough time sketching them. This one kept returning to the same stem. There was an added incentive to draw in that I wasn't sure what species I had in front of me. I knew it was a female meadowhawk, but which one? Could I draw it well enough to identify it when I had my field guide in hand?

Her body is rusty orange; no thoratic stripes; golden on the forward edge of her wings; and just a little golden-tan on her legs.

When I got home I looked in "Dragonflies and Damselflies of Oregon" by Kert and Gordon. .... it's a Saffron-winged meadowhawk. I have to admit there is a certain sdatisfaction to being able to identify the little dragonfly from just my drawing.

August 28--the day after Irene

Sometimes we forget about the small things. I found this poor fellow clinging to a branch unable to fly after being totally battered by the hurricane. All I could do was document his demise.
Paula in post-earthquake/hurricane Virginia

Emergence

I was fortunate enough to find a dragonfly nymph searching for an place to transform into an adult. Dragonfly nymphs are aquatic larva. When they are ready to mature the nymph crawls out of the water onto some kind of firm support such as a reed, catail, or even a rock.

This nymph was having difficulty finding an appropriate stem to crawl onto so I helped by providing a small stick, which he immediatly accepted.

For the first hour I was too busy photographing to draw, but then the process slowed and I grabbed the opportunity to sketch. The whole process took just over two hours. By the time he was ready to fly we could see it was a male crimson-ringed whiteface ( Leucorrhinia glacialis).

To see photos of his emergence go to my blog: www.elvafieldnotes.blogspot.com

A Purple Martin with Prey--Vickie Henderson

After many sessions of visiting a purple martin colony and observing from the roof of my car, I finally saw one of those enormous dragonflies held in a female martin's mouth as she brought the prey to her young.  Even though I have seen this in photographs, it was hard for me to believe the size of those dragonflies.   Even more fascinating is the fact that a nestling can swallow that size prey!

Martins are insectivores that fly at high speeds to capture insects in the air.  But I wasn't convinced dragonflies were that large in Tennessee!  I just had to see it for myself.

Below you see the painting I created by combining this observation with a different flight pose.  I used a lot of imagination to create this painting and its background, making every hour spent with the colony well worth the effort.  All that you observe while in the field gets internalized and comes out while you're painting.  Even though I have a plan of sorts in my head as I start, I never quite know what the finished result will be.

To see more about how I approached this painting, visit purple martins at Vickie's Sketchbook.  

Golf Game - Pam Johnson Brickell

Golf Game at Hilton Head National, a photo by PJBee on Flickr.

Now this is the only way for me to play golf.... well, my preferred way :) I sit in the cart and sketch my way around the course!

Dragonflies - Laura Gillis

This newest sketch is a female Common Green Darner dragonfly. I thought I had already done this dragonfly but when I looked closer, I discovered that the earlier sketch was of a male.

So, ladies first.

And, just for comparison, here is the male that I sketched back in 2009.

Ink & watercolor in the Bug Journal (Moleskine Watercolor Journal).

Striped Meadowhawk

The sun is finally shining in the Pacific Northwest again, at least for three days. My husband, a friend and I headed to one of our favorite dragonfly haunts, Ben Irving Reservoir, Douglas County, Oregon. A few dragonflies are still flying even though we’ve had lots of rain and a light frost. I noticed this striped meadowhawk kept returning to the same strand of grass so I sat down on the grassy bank to sketch and draw. The little dragonfly was kind enough to even land on my hand a half dozen times so I could get a better look.

It felt wonderful soaking up sunshine and enjoying the insects around me. Nearby two spotted towhees and two Bewicks wrens took turns peering out of dense poison oak. Off in the distance a small flock of Canada geese grazed on green grasses and a great egret hunted in the shallows.

Sometimes I’m surprised at the things I see when I draw. At first I assumed all six feet rested on the stand of old grass, but then I realized there is a reason for the tiny barbs on his legs. He uses the barbs rather like tree surgeon uses climbing irons.

Back to the Bugs - Laura Gillis

Finally got back to doing some insect sketches and finished off page 20 in the bug journal.

All are ink with watercolor in the Moleskine watercolor journal

Dragonfly & weevil - Laura Gillis

I have a couple of bugs today... a Twelve Spotted Skimmer dragonfly and a Boll Weevil. The boll weevil is pretty surprising since they started the Boll Weevil Eradication Project in our area a few years ago and we're not supposed to have those any more. We don't have any cotton fields very close to us so I am not sure how it got to our house. I was in cotton country on the weekend and maybe it hitched a ride in my car or something like that... who knows?

I really don't think the BW Eradication Project is a good thing. When they spray to eradicate the weevils, what other beneficial insects are they killing at the same time? Will we wake up in 50 years and have to start re-introducing weevils like we have had to do with the wolves? Okay, that might be an extreme example but I do fear that we are killing off other insects that have benefits that we don't know about yet. But, they are probably working on another new chemical to spray that will make up for the unknown... (sorry, didn't mean to get on my soap box!)

It's a tough argument when you live in a family of cotton farmers but maybe they will be out farming and not reading my blog. ha!

Ink & Watercolor in the Moleskine Watercolor Journal

Blue-Eyed Darner

Question for y'all! Do you ever see dragonflies patrolling territory around saltwater? All the info seems to indicate that dragonflies prefer freshwater such as lakes, streams and ponds; important areas to have for enticing a female during egg laying time. The Blue-Eyed Darner I see near my sketch spot by the beach patrols up and down and it is definitely salt!

Dragonflies