Not So Lazy Sunday

I managed to be pretty active with the camera today, either side of a trip to the very posh Chesapeake City Park playground with Banished Junior. That has to the the biggest and best play area I ever saw. Junior loved it despite the fact it was pushing 90 again. Thank goodness for a lot of shady trees.

I got out and about for an hour at around noon before we set out and took my long lense down to the pond looking for some dragonfly action. The pond has developed really well over the years with a lot of marginal plants and its great for dragonflies. Alas the increasing vegetation makes it harder to get to the dragonflies. It great for spotting but its tough to get so close these days. More Eastern Pondhawks again, this one is a maturing male and has that great mix of green and blue compared to yesterdays solid blue from the garden.  

Also tried to catch a female egg laying but didnt get the dipping action I was looking to show. You can see the ovipositor pointing downward at the tip of the abdomen though.

Also saw the first Needhams Skimmers today, together with Common White Tails (below) Blue Dashers and various Darners. All of these are going to turn up as photos in the next few weeks, well not neccessarily the darners unless they are especially cooperative and I'm exceptionally lucky.

I think I caught sight of a momentarily perched Spangled Skimmer but couldn't get a shot of it.

Other lunchtime finds included this True Bug as yet unID'ed on one of the newly opened yellow day lilies. This is pretty small, its sitting in the centre of the pistil of the lily

Update June 1st. It seems that its a Tarnished Plant Bug (Lygus lineolaris)

Also found this great piece of camouflage when checking out a spider web in the big rosemary. The  web turned out to be uninhabited but as I got down into the shrub I caught a movement and found this little mantis stalking. The disguise is particularly effective in the rosemary, its leaves are around 3/4 inch long, mid green and narrow... just like the mantis. I took my eye off it after getting the shot and when I turned back I actually couldn't find it again.

After our afternoon out I popped back out to see what was still around and got a couple of nice Orange Sulphurs (Colias eurytheme)
. I paid for these though. Its was getting later and so I returned from the ponds edge with half a dozen pics and an equal number of mosquito bites.