Up Before the Dawn

Shadowdragon is an irresistibly cool name.  So it's no wonder that Crumby has been heading out early to Town Lake, hoping to encounter an orange shadowdragon or two.  But more particularly,  Crumby wanted to take pictures of them in flight.  So far, Crumby has been to the Town Lake location three times specifically for pre-dawn or pre-sunrise shadowdragon photography.  Two of those times, Crumby forgot his off camera flash and the other time, he had the flash, but the shadowdragons didn't show up.  Maybe spooked by all the rain.

Anyway, predictably, photographing flying dragonflies in the dark (course it's never actually really dark in these parts), in a tiny boat is an instructive activity.  Last visit, yesterday morning, sunrise was 6:30.  A shadowdragon was first noticed at 6:10 and last noticed at 6:46 on a mostly cloudy morning.  The most Crumby ever saw at once was three.  They fly around really fast usually staying from Crumby's eye level in the kayak to 3-4 feet over Crumby's head.  That would be about 3-7 feet.  Once though, on another day, Crumby espied a bunch of them in a mixed feeding swarm with prince baskettails maybe 15' or so feet in the air.  Speaking of prince baskettails, they too are early risers.  Crumby generally notices  them around dawn and pretty soon after that, they are the only dragons flying.  So these twain, the orange shadowdragons first, then the prince baskettails are the only dragonflies Crumby has seen out early.  The rest are apparently still asleep.  Here is the best osdif Crumby has managed.  This is a male.

Not so great.

Well.  Now you're already on the dern lake.  Getting up and there was hard work.  So now you need to fool around until the rest of the dragonflies wake up.  Crumby, no fool, spent his time exploring for good places to piss.  Yes.  When you're afflicted with a 70.5 plus year old bladder, knowing all the good places to piss is important.  Crumby found two good spots where getting in and out of the kayak was safe and easy, even when he was in a hurry.

By then. the diurnals were up and this Cyrano darner was having a late brunch with a neon skimmer.  Mercy!   Are you fixing to eat ALL that?

Summer Solstice

Celebrating the summer solstice in northern climes, like for example Sweden,  makes sense.  Like you get some relief from all the cannibalism and incest that runs rampant on  shorter days.  But here in Tejas, celebrating the solstice is kind of stupid.   That's because the Sun shining longer, therefore, making the day hotter, when it's too hot already, is hardly a cause for celebration.  Plus, cannibalism and incest are probably climate independent in these parts.  But never mind anyway.  Tejans don't celebrate the Solstice regardless.  It's not in their nature.

So to celebrate the Summer Solstice today,  Crumby overslept.  Then, instead of heading out to the multi-dammed river,  where he meant to go kayaking if he hadn't overslept, he went to the sewage ponds instead.  The sewage ponds, where nature meets shit, beloved of Odonate hunters and Class Aves silly persons alike.  However. Crumby has nothing much to report from that lat-long.   Well, maybe a nice female russet-tipped clubtail.  She is hot.  But that's it.

So instead,  Crumby shall celebrate Summer Solstice with a recount of his Odonate adventures from last Friday on Town Lake, Red Bud Island vicinity.  All these are from those parts.

Gray waisted skimmer female

Slaty skimmer permutation 1

Slaty skimmer permutation 2

Slaty skimmer permutation 3

Royal river cruiser in flight

Orange shadowdragon teneral male with exuvia

Another Dragonfly in Flight

This is most likely a different comet darner than the previous.  This one did not hoover.  It just hauled ass.  Because of the clouds and the shade it was in, the 60d needed to be set to iso 1600;  which produces very noisy images.  Noisy I tell you. However, Crumby likes this particular picture a lot because the dragonfly has his held straight, yet his body is twisted sideways .

One attribute of the 60d that has helped Crumby with dif shots is back button focus which is where the AF-On button does the focus and the shutter button only takes the picture.  So the shutter mechanism and focusing are decoupled.

Crumby never liked autofocus on his 60d.  Accuracy was hit or miss and with most lenses there was lots of hunting.  But for whatever reason, the back button is more accurate and locks focus way faster than the shutter button.

More Dragonflies in Flight

Crumby feels like photographing dragonflies is a good hobby for an elderly cripple possessed of a nervous disposition.  Yet photographing dragonflies in flight makes the hobby even better. Because photographing a dragonfly in flight is like riding a bicycle downhill.  It feels like you're getting something for free.

In Crumby's limited experience comet darners don't hoover much.  What they do, do is fly around really long and not apparently predictable patrol routes while disappearing from view for long intervals. So today, early, Crumby prayed to Lord Hoover, also known by Dr. Hoover,  President Hoover, Herbert; the same immortal that had a mammal, the hoover hog, named after him.  Crumby's semi-earnest prayers must have done plenty of good.  Because this particular comet darner actually hoovered nearby a time or two.

Also, the four-striped leaftails seem to be flying and hardly ever sitting these days.  Luckily, they are slow and steady aviators.