Female Blue Dasher Ovipositing
How cool does this hovering aircraft look? This female Blue Dasher (Pachydiplax longipennis) is ovipositing, laying eggs, into aquatic vegetation in a pond as photographed last week. As you can see they are quite skilled at keeping their head still while their wings are whipping and the abdomen is being pressed into the water.
Read MoreBlue Dasher
It is odonate season, finally! Our various dragonflies and damselflies are emerging and migrating our way now that there is plenty of food in the air. Here is an up-close look at the Blue Dasher (Pachydiplax longipennis). While we at RTPI do not have any specific dragonfly monitoring programs underway this year we will be recording them during all of our other work in New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and New Jersey. This includes programs such as Project Wild America and Bridgeport WildLife Guards, from avian and reptile study sites, Natural History Atlas locations, at Stratford Point and...
Read MoreBarred Owl (Strix varia)
This Barred Owl (Strix varia) saw me long before I saw it, monitoring my movements from afar while perched in this tree on a cloudy May morning. Those enormous dark eyes tracked me in a relaxed fashion as I was still rather far away when I noticed it. I had been watching several warblers and a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher before my eyes stumbled on this slightly larger species. Barred Owls are, of course, usually snoozing during the day, but not always – and the spring season is when I have seen them the most active diurnally. This bird did not wake up because I was there, nor was it sleepy....
Read MoreRed-webbed Tree Frog (Hypsiboas rufitelus)
Take a look at this unreal shot of an unbelievable pair of eyes on this Red-webbed Tree Frog (Hypsiboas rufitelus) by RTPI Affiliate Sean Graesser. This is one of those photos that transports you all the way to Costa Rica from the comfort of your screen.
Read MoreSnowy Away
This is about the best photo of a Snowy Owl that I could get in the last couple of weeks. They have been elusive, to say the least, even when nearby. Most of that time I have encountered the far more wary individual – one of two hanging out for the winter in the Stratford Point area – and it has been certainly as jumpy as ever lately. On Tuesday it was chased off by crows before anyone noticed it hunkered down in the grasslands. The shot here is the result of it flying off last week before I could even raise my camera between the door and body of my Jeep from hundreds of feet...
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