You Can Call Me "Bug Girl"

Since starting my journey in photography, I have to admit to a fascination with bugs.  Not like any bugs and not bugs in my house or bugs touching my body but taking pictures of bugs.

It really started with the dragonflies.  While living in Florida, I had close encounters of the dragon kind every day and I love them.  OK - I am obsessed with them.  Folks in my photo groups call me the Dragonfly Whisperer although I am fairly certain that the dragonflies would concur with Dragonfly Stalker.

My obsession does not just extend to stalking dragonflies or running after bugs in the wild, but I also began to read about them, especially dragonflies.  I knew it was bad when I would wax enthusiastic at family dinners about species and experiences during my photographic journeys, adding in all the neat new facts that I had uncovered about bug behavior.  Blank stares and even my Mom asking me if I needed to see a therapist were the results.

 
The idea of going out to stalk dragonflies and other various denizens of the buggy kingdoms has gotten me out of bed at dawn, led me into standing in swamps motionless for 20 minutes to get a shot and hanging upside down the side of a canal to inspect a cocoon.  Weird, right?

In my defense, I have documented over 26 types of dragonflies, identified invasive species harmful to the Florida ecosystem, submitted to various scientific and scientific groups and  gotten a few darn cool photos along the way.  I even realized that my serious and debilitating arachnophobia could be controlled if I breathed and looked through the lens.  I do not wax poetic about spider behavior ... you are safe.

But the real reason that I am so excited about bugs ... beside the darn cool photos is that they saved my life.  Two years ago, I had just returned from London.  My husband and I had separated.  I had just been laid off.  I hated Florida.  The economy had made finding a job in my industry virtually impossible.  I was depressed and then one evening during a walk, I sat down in a field of dragonflies.  I was entranced and that was the first of months of daily walks.  Instead of going to bed and staying there (which is what I wanted to do), I went outside, took photos, did research and formed awesome networks on Flickr.  

 
I am through the bad patch now but my love of photography and capturing all the wonderful and weird things around us, no matter how small, has definitely stuck.  So, yes, you can call me Bug Girl.  or the Dragonfly Whisperer/Stalker, or as one friend dubbed me - the Reigning Queen of the Dragonfly Nerds on flickr.  But the bugs and I know ... I owe them.

   

All Photos Are Mine so Please Respect Copyright ... or the bugs will get you ... seriously.  

tree hugger

sneaking up on a blue dasher

scarlet skimmer princess in gold

stand off with a dragon

dragon & lotus

Sweet Princess at Eventide

Female Scarlet Skimmer at Dusk - Tattered but Regal!

wing detail

Halloween Pennant Dragonfly looking for a munch!

Dragonfly under Full Moon

Halloween Pennant Dragonfly under a Full Moon

Blue Dragon Rock Star

my blue dasher dragonfly rock star - posing beautifully in a palm tree just after he ate.  He was about the size of my pinky.

A New Dragonfly & Damselfly

My 10 yr old nephew accompanied me on my afternoon walk today and thanks to his very young eagle eyes, I managed to get pics of a new dragonfly and my first damselfly!  I am quite excited and yes, life is such that this is great excitement :) and totally fun!  Whether my fertile imagination or not, even my nephew commented that they do not get all excited and fly away so much anymore when I am around - possibly because I have been tromping through every day....who knows?  This evening is set aside to do a bit of research and see if I can discover the names - the amber and brown striped wings are Halloween Pennant Dragonflies as I discovered and Baker Watson was kind to confirm.  It was another windy day here which means at least 60% of the pics come out blurred but I was pleased with those that came out!  YAY!

little orange guy

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turquoise tipped damselfly

patient damselfly

pretty wings

biggest Halloween Pennant I have seen

almost red Halloween Pennant w/ flyby in corner

Storms and Dragons

I was chased indoors by the incoming storm - I figured a field is not a good place to be when a storm approaches :) - but I managed to get 2 NEW dragonflies before I came in!  The green one was very patient and sat right there while I fiddled and snapped but there was lots of activity along the canal so it was just quick!  I will go check later after the weather clears....

Neon Green dragonfly posing!

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along the canal

active dragonfly breeding ground

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chasing me inside

Lifespan of a Dragonfly

I was looking at this picture of one of the dragonflies that I took a picture of:

dragonfly and friend

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and his wings seem a bit worse for wear and it was mentioned that the lifespan of a dragonfly is only 14 days so I found this:
"The lifespan of a dragonfly comprises of two-stages. After breeding the female dragonfly will deposit her eggs under or onto aquatic vegetation. Once the eggs have hatched the first stage in the lifestyle of a dragonfly can begin. This stage of a dragonfly's lifestyle is as an aquatic larvae, or 'nymph'. This stage will generally last between one and three years, during which time the larvae will act as a voracious predator of other insect larvae, tadpole and even small fish. Most other insect species, including moths and butterflies, go through a pupal stage before emerging as adults, however, dragonflies do not pupate. Instead the larval form will emerge from its aquatic environment and hang from the bank or a stem. From this position it will and bask in the warmth of the sunlight and undergo metamorphosis into its adult form. Once the larva's transformation is complete, the newly emerged adult will have to wait several hours before its wings dry out and become firm enough to fly. This is a critical time in the life cycle of the dragonfly as it is exposed to predation, which may even come from dragonfly larvae themselves. However, once the adult is able to fly it becomes once more a voracious predator, displaying its wonderful metallic armor. As an adult, its quarry will be flying insects and some of the larger dragonfly species may even predate its cousin the damsel fly.
Life as an adult sadly is a glorious burst, just long enough to reproduce. The adult dragonfly will not live beyond several months, depending on the quality of the weather. Generally speaking, if the weather is dry and warm then the adult may live as long as six months. However, in the short, and sometimes not so sweet summer of the British Isles, adults will tend not to live for longer than several weeks. If your eyes are keenly tuned to the air above rivers, lakes and ponds, you may just be fortunate enough to see a beautiful dragonfly dancing and darting, it is a truly marvelous sight indeed."

I am going to poke around some more about the loss of the wings - maybe another insect took a bite...anyways just for informational purposes...

Friday Wanderings

towards the later afternoon, I was just too tempted by all the dartings of the dragonflies past my window by my desk so I grabbed the camera and headed out to see what all the activity was about - turns out was more about it being windy and they were busy zipping around and alighting for split seconds!  Was a good little tour and a nice little break from work.  I saw several new dragonflies today that I have never seen - one was neon green and I caught a quick snap but came out a little blurry and then there was a blue striped near the canal but he did not stop for a minute and, finally, there was a HUGE orange who was as interested in me as I was him!  He kept hovering just off my right shoulder no matter where I walked but never landed.  I was the crazy neighbor talking to him (*EYE ROLL*) and asking him to sit down for a sec for a picture so we will see what the weekend brings.  It was pretty windy so they were having a tough time hanging on - the squirrel on the other hand had no issues at all and seemed happy to pose!

dragonfly with water in background

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dragonfly and friend

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righteous squirrel

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?? Buggy Upside Down Dude ???

amongst the green

dragonfly

blurred neon green dragonfly

a little yellow

brown grasshopper?

where did the week go?

Have been busy with work, calling nurses and doctors!  Know any?  :)  We are paying $1000 for a candidate that I end up placing to anyone who refers them!
Anyways. it has been hectic but super fun - I love talking to people all over the country - I can sometimes speak to people in more than 20 states in a day! 
I did sneak a walk in so here are a few of the pics of the area around the house...and of course, snuck in a few more pics of the dragonflies!
Happy Friday early!!!!

pretty pink

Dragonfly with buddies

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dragonfly!

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canal behind my house

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Dragonfly Breeding Ground

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Evening Sky

on my walk today I saw ...

BUGS!  and LIZARDS!  and (dear gods) SPIDERS! and BUTTERFLIES! 

The grass was cut around the complex which caused little clouds of gnats to be displaced which in turn caused HORDES of dragonflies to fly around like maniacs!  They never landed though as they were too busy dive bombing the clouds and eating them I assume.  It was pretty cool to see all the dragonflies - all different from the ones I have seen before and all colors - but I will have to wait til evening and they are full to take some pics, I hope.

I walked down to see my alien plants and ... they were almost gone!  very quick cycle.  I emailed the research site and offered them my pics and the head of the research said to send them along to put on their site so that was pretty neat and they are going to add Florida as a location.

So here are a few...I was only out for about 30 min due to the heat and at one point, I was following the butterfly and ended up in a patch of spiders....oh MY GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD...panic - snapped a few and only one came out as I was carefully backing out of the area - there were about 20 all hanging out - I almost passed out.  but got one creepy crawly...sigh.

just pretty

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a new dragonfly!

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a new lizard!

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I almost passed out

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