I find myself looking for spiders when shooting insects like i look for birds of prey when shooting birds.

I like to see how animals figure into cultures - the beliefs and things built around them. The dragonfly runs the gauntlet from hated to revered. Most of Europe hated them because they thought the devil sent them; gave them names like “Devil’s Darning Needle.” On the flipside, Japanese legend has it that an Emperor was bitten by a horsefly which, in turn, was eaten by a dragonfly. The Emperor honored the dragonfly by naming what is now Japan, “Akitsushima,” which during that time translated to “Isle of the Dragonfly.” I just found that on some random website though…

Ran into a lot of spiders and a couple flies. The spiders sit still better, but not by much.

Suborder Zygoptera. Greek, zygo meaning joined or paired and ptera meaning wings. These are ‘azure’ and ‘vivid dancer’ damselflies, which sounds like an Elton John song to me.

Bombycilla cedrorum

Found this while reading about them: “Because they frequently feast on overripe fruit, these birds can become “drunk” on the fermented juices.” Those are soapberries they’re going to town on.

Agapostemon virescens. I checked many sources to make sure.

Tags: Oxley Nature Center

So when I started hunting down and photographing birds, I got pretty good, and quick, at identifying them. Like Jesse James but with a Field Guide and camera (of course I miss here and there). I don’t think the insects will be quite as easy. But I think they may be more fun than birds if only because i’ll come back with more than three or four usable shots.

I got a new lens (Canon 2.8 70-200 IS) and it was not cheap. But it’s necessary. Made it below the dam just in time for the sun to go down. Would’ve been nice to’ve seen an eagle with the fancy IS system (my last one, I like to call “primitive”, didn’t have the image stabilizer. But it did have 23 or so elements). Should be able to get sharper images of hawks and things flying, and animals in general.

Saw the osprey three times yesterday in various places, from a distance - two of the times, holding a fish in its talons. From the spot where I got this shot from, I could hear two fishermen behind me talking about how they hadn’t caught anything in four hours. Thought that was funny. I anticipated where he was going to be this time and sat in my picked spot not long before he landed across the water from me high up on a tree. So I was happy with my anticipation skills but the distance backed up my speculation that I need new gear better suited for wildlife photography. Namely, a bigger zoom. Need to upgrade from my 70-200. So that’ll be coming soon.