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?
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?
posted by ray pistrum at Saturday, June 23, 2018
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