I drove to Leu Gardens today, not expecting to find much to shoot for the photoblog. Taking the camera out and not finding any insects, my subject of choice, has become very depressing. Plus, I feel some pressure to perform as the photoblog has several loyal viewers [unlike this word blog which no one but Elizabeth reads]. We had record lows in the 30s earlier in the week, so I assumed the cold had wiped out the few slow and tattered insects that had lived through the winter. I started down at the lake, hoping to find an interesting bird willing to pose, but the reeds and beach were empty.
As I was heading back to the gardens proper, I caught a flash of silver. A lacewing, perhaps? I walked over to investigate and realized that it was a dragonfly, from the look of her [the coloring indicates a female Eastern pondhawk], a newly emerged one. She had pristine wings—not a single tattered edge—and acted as if this body were a foreign language she didn't yet understand. She stayed close to the ground, making frequent stops in the cut grass. A mockingbird had his eye on her, but I shooed him away, and with the new lens [a 300 mm] got a few very nice close ups. The lake edges have been dragonfly free for quite some time, so her presence must mean that spring is indeed near.
I spied a skipper butterfly in the "home demonstration" garden and then went in pursuit of a fat bumble bee. That's when I learned that my camera battery had died [this new lens, with image stabilization, sucks down a battery much more quickly than I'm used to], so I headed home. But at least the bugs are returning!
