Days Dam Trailhead is Buggy

Our staff picnic was at Days Dam today.

I was hoping to catch a few dragonflies by the waterfall but no luck. 

This spiky guy looks pretty cool!

I'm not sure what this is, it looks like juvenile though.

A little blue butterfly.

I think bee wings are really cool. 

I didn't have luck at the waterfall but I happened across this meadowhawk on my way out.

I saw tons of baby snails!

I have no clue what this was, but I saw it so now you have to too.

Sandy Ridge is for the Birds

I returned to Sandy Ridge hoping to photograph the swan family. They do look like something out of a fairy tale.

Baby swans are called cygnets and I think they are adorable.

Out of water the swan looks a lot more like a goose.

 I love semi-transparent bird wings in flight and think this picture came out a little dreamy.

The great egret looks quite different on the ground.

Great blue herons are just so weird and predatory looking. I can't help but try and photograph them even though they tend to stay far away.

I spied an indigo bunting! It was super far away, but look at how brilliant blue it is!

I'm bummed these ducks were quite far out. They also didn't want to pose nicely and I was starting to get toasty so I headed back home after getting what I hoped was a photo I could at least ID with. 

And this guy seemed appropriate with July 4th just around the corner.

Sandy Ridge Bugs

I visited Sandy Ridge again trying to get some more dragonflies for the survey Ohio is doing. I was surprised at the number of bug pictures I got.

Making some new dragonflies.

Ebony jewel Wing

Honey bee

This is apparently a unicorn clubtail.

Perhaps a bit blurry but most comical express goes to this dragonfly.

Another jewelwing

And finally an orchard orbweaver.

Hello Moon (and Jupiter)

Today is one of the best days of the year to see Jupiter, and I lucked out with relatively clear skies.

First I had to do a test photo with the moon. 

Here is Jupiter and the two smaller bright dots are some of its moons. 

This if probably the clearest shot. You can see some of the bands. 

Sandy Ridge Reservation Redux

The weather held out for a trip today. I didn't want to venture too far with the broken glasses of doom so I went to Sandy Ridge as it gets a lot of foot traffic.

This Sandhill Crane was fearless. People were walking a foot away from it and it didn't care. One guy joked about trying to pet it, but while I was close enough that I could have, one look at the huge beak and I was not tempted. I took a lot of photos of the crane.

I can totally see the birds as living dinosaurs thing here.

I cannot get over those eyes!

The crane was so big, it was actually hard to get it all into the picture. 

I saw quite a few turtles. They always make me think of my sister.

I saw a few white egrets too. 

This is a female red-winged blackbird. They look nothing like the males. 

This butterfly has seen better days. 

This is actually a second butterfly.

And finally a decent dragonfly picture this season!

And finally this is what happens when you catch a warbler in flight at just the wrong time.