Blue & Brown

A skipper, likely a Sachem but who knows it's a LBJ (Little Brown Job) happily feeding on the mass of blue flowers that is the Vitex.

The blue flowered tree and the half-a-bedfull of Beebalm beneath it make this the most colorful couple of weeks in the garden.

Peace

Wild Color

Norfolk Botanical Garden wild flower meadows

Flashes of Colour

From Hoffler Creek yesterday

A newly hatched Needham's Skimmer, which were everywhere.

A Halloween Skimmer which are just starting to appear in numbers now but will be everywhere and brighter soon.

And the damselfly Rambur's Forktail (Ischnura ramburii) a female of the orange form.

Beautiful... For a Wasp

A tiny cuckoo wasp in the garden yesterday. One of the Chrysidinae. This ones not just metallic green it's actually Hammerited and rivetted!

Squadrons!

Warming up now with summer just about here and hurricane season officially started (whoo whoo :-l )

And the dragonflies are finally out in numbers and I've been shooting them in the yard plus another trip to Norfolk Botanical.

The Painted Skimmer that I shot for the first time last summer at Hoffler Creek seems to be moving in around here in bigger numbers all of a sudden. They have been all over the yard the last couple of weeks and are especially fond of the tips of the fence posts where they will happily perch for ages zipping out now and then to grab a mosquito or midge to munch on and returning to munch and pose.

The Eastern Pondhawk is always with us. This is a young male still green and black with very little change to blue, just a shading on the thorax maybe.

The Blue Dashers too are numerous, over the course of the season I'm sure we see more of these than any other species. And they are another percher that will patiently let you take its picture and even if disturbed will return to the same perch so long as you stand still for a moment.

It is interesting how the species that turn up in the yard have changed somewhat over the 10 years I've been here. This is an Eastern Amberwing (Perithemis tenera) a very small dragon that used to be very numerous on the pond and in the yard too. But this was the first I've seen this year and it made me think that I rarely see one at all these last couple of years. Ponds change, become more or less vegetated, the fish and turtle populations change and the dragonfly populations change with them. Amberwings particularly skim very low over the pond surface and seem to be prey to larger fish and turtles.

The Four Spotted Pennant (above) used to be very common too using the same fence post perches as the Painted Skimmers do now. But I haven't seen one in the yard in around 5 years.... very odd.

Meanwhile, back in Norfolk,  Great Blue Skimmers were everywhere immature males like the top one of theses, not yet turned blue. The third is half turned with a blue thorax and a blue sheen to the abdomen but the immature stripes still visible.

There were beasts to be seen besides dragonflies though. 

Above is the Painted Lady (Vanessa atalanta) which looks very like its american cousin V. virginiensis but there are differences in the underwing eye spots. The American Lady has fewer but larger spots spots on the hind underwing.

This is my first Fritillary of the year, the passionflower loving Variegated Fritillary (Euptoieta claudia)

The Margined Leatherwing (Chauliognathus marginatus) is a very common flower beetle found in huge numbers especially on umbelliferae where they feed on pollen and nectar.  

I'm still waiting to ID this little black/metallic green/cream jumping spider but I'll update when its done. I think maybe a Pellegrina species (but I'm usually wrong). 
UPDATE
And of course I am! Its actually Paraphidippus aurantius

And just look how great the gardens were looking in the low late afternoon sun as we walked through the woodlands.

On Tour

After torrential rains on Friday that flooded downtown Norfolk and Portsmouth, this weekend was beautiful. Bright and sunny and just around 70f. Perfect weather to be out and about. So Saturday was spent mulching in the yard and planting yet more new plants in the hope some of them will survive. Last weekend we finally managed to buy some milkweed for the monarchs. And this weekend we put in a few more bits and pieces and mulched front and back trying to keep the weeds down and stop everything from shrivelling up from the heat come July and August.

But then Sunday we took another trip out to Norfolk Botanical Garden as it was another perfect weather day. But the day started in the yard before we set out with this less than perfect Spring Azure. One wing was a little tatty (I know Im a Nazi over this) but it did pose with wings spread so that we can all see that it is a BLUE as opposed to a vaguely silvery.

From then on it was a day for the less common or just plain new. Everywhere I turned there were species of butterfly or dragonfly I either see once in a blue moon or hadn't seen at all.

Now not everything posed to perfection, but when your after that new one you have to take what you can get. The first two dragonflies were species I have seen before but arent everyday beasts especially around my pond.

We had a baskettail posing prettily on a catmint. I've better shots of the baskettail but its always nice to have them posing somewhere other than a dead twig.

Then in the Frog Bog area there were plenty of early Common Whitetails, Blue Dashers and this slightly less common Blue Corporal (Ladona deplanata). This one was very cooperative while I moved around it. One of the pleasing things about the temperature being what it is is that while its warm enough for everything to be out and about it isnt so warm that they whiz around nonstop.

Then in the butterfly meadow with its beautiful planting on wild flowers there were a variety of dragons zipping about in pursuit of the smaller flying beasties. One that did settle for a minute or two was this Painted Skimmer, only the second one I've managed to snap. While the other, shot at Hoffler Creek, is the better image then was certainly more prettily placed among the meadow flowers.

The butterfly meadow leads to the butterfly house but that doesnt open until mid -June. The butterfly friendly gardens around it were busy enough though especially with skippers. Amongst these, nestled in the clover and flitting just for a moment were the Checkered Skippers. I've never shot better than a blur on these so it was nice to finally get something resonable. It took a little concentration because if you took your eye off these it was easy to lose them. 

The latin name is Pyrgus communis.

Most of the time at ground level there was a scratching and scamping in the dry leaves in and around the bushes and shrubs. A moments patience would reveal a lizard on the hunt. There were lots and lots of Five Lined Skinks out on Sunday. Both young, with bright blue tails:

And mature males on the lookout for more than a snack as shown by the bright red head.

As the lizard gets older the stripes grow less distinct and the blue tail fades to a blue grey in the females or plain old brown in the males.

And the last new species for the Botanical Gardens yesterday was this little Stilt Legged Fly (Taeniaptera trivittata) doing a very convincing impression of a wasp, waving those white tipped legs like antennae.

On the way home we stopped off at a new site in Portsmouth, Paradise Creek nature park. This is off of the Elizabeth River and is a reclaimed wetland with woods all around it. It was our first time there and honestly it's not terribly attactive. Its under development still and its surrounded by ugly industrial buildings and silos. And the area of housing behind is best described as unsalubrious. And while it was getting late as we didnt roll up until 6pm there really wasnt much of anything to see. A wetland with no egrets, not herons, no ospreys I saw barely a bird but for a few stray swifts. And not one butterfly. Not a single one. And almost no dragonflies either. Until just as we were heading out and back to the parking lot a single small dragon landed in the vegetation beside the path and I got my last new species for the day.

This is the Seaside Dragonlet (Erythrodiplax berenice) that is distinguished by being the only dragonfly that breeds in salt or brackish water. With as many tidal salt marshes  as we have around here I'm surprised I havent seen one before. But it did make the otherwise miserable Paradise Creek worth the visit.