I do love seeing dragonflies. Sometimes, they’ve actually swarmed through my back yard, leaving me gaping with delight. And the thistle is gorgeous — such a pretty color!
I’m a huge fan of dragonflies, too, especially the blue ones! That must be an amazing sight to have a swarm of them flying through your yard. Caught the thistle out of the corner of my eye, I’m glad I noticed it. 🙂
Delicate beauty – not only the thistles (which are pretty even if we call them weeds) but the dragonfly and butterfly as well. This is perfection Barbara since everything is in the similar color scheme!
Thank you, Linda! What? Thistles are weeds? Not in my book! 🙃 I wasn’t feeling well that day but was hoping a walk would help. Seeing that huge great blue skimmer made it worth the effort, even if I couldn’t get a clear picture of it.
Not in my book either Barbara! One of my favorite pictures ever was of a Goldfinch at the Park perched on a Thistle … a lucky shot for me. I’ve only taken one dragonfly picture to date and that was only because it decided to stay on a trail and not move.
I love how we have so many memories about our photographs, where we were and how we got (or almost got) them, and how lucky we get sometimes! Sometimes the story behind the shot is just as interesting the picture itself. I’ve seen more dragonflies down here than I ever saw in Connecticut.
Yes, that’s for sure. I hope to see more Dragonflies – photographing them is something else. I have only seen Cabbage White butterflies and one Swallowtail this year. Maybe all these windy days are causing them to shelter somewhere?
I imagine the winged creatures would be hiding out from the wind. Nothing that flies enjoys navigating in turbulence!
I’m sure that is the reason and we have had day after day of very gusty wind – today would have been a nice outing, but the wind was 15 mph at 8:00 a.m. and by 10:00 or 11:00 25 mph gusts. Along the water, it’s no treat. I hope I see some pretty butterflies. I found one big moth with spots and got a photo of it. Google images told me it was an “Eight-Spotted Forester Moth” and that might have been my first moth photograph taken.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen an eight-spotted forester moth before. Love those orange leg warmers it seems to be wearing. 😉 Looking forward to seeing your picture!
It is unusual for sure Barbara … I have a butterfly and moth book I had from years ago, but it took me two seconds to do the Google image search.
I’ve been using the image search, too. Sometimes the results aren’t that definitive but they do give me a place to start looking elsewhere.
Yes, I would have spent a long time looking for that moth without Google Images. I once saw a Northern Mockingbird and before I knew about Google Images or the FB site “What’s that bird?” I spent a lot of time narrowing down the criteria and found a lot of birds that with similar characteristics … they all looked alike to me.
I’m the same way with some birds. It takes a lot of practice to notice the subtle differences in similar species. I like the “Similar Species” feature with each bird on the All About Birds website. It shows pictures of six similar ones for the northern mockingbird. If you click on one it tells you what the subtle differences are. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Mockingbird/id
Even so, I’m not sure I can discern the difference between the Carolina and black-capped chickadees!
Thanks for this link you sent me Barbara. I have been on this site and never noticed this feature before. I remember trying to narrow it down by body type, tail, color, etc. after Arnie, the elderly walker who has since passed away, and I saw it perched in a tree in the Winter. So he went home to consult his bird book and me to Google around. He never used a computer in his life, but had a bird guide from “Reader’s Digest” and showed it to me the next day. Yes, it looked like our bird that I had photographed and I didn’t know about the Google Image Search then. He was spot on, the old-fashioned way.
Some of the females are difficult to know what birds they are. Unless the female Red-winged Blackbird is in the marsh or near her mate, I don’t recognize her as a RWB.
That’s so true about the females. I thought I took a picture of a song sparrow but I must have sensed something slightly different about it. When I submitted it to What’s this Bird? they identified it as a female purple finch! I would never have figured that out on my own.
And my submisson to “What’s this Bird” came back a juvenile Eastern Starling. I would never have guessed that either!
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🙂
A sunny smile to brighten my day! 🙂
thank you for the beauty,Barbara
You’re welcome, dearest Leelah.
Beautiful!
Thank you, Ally!
Beautiful moments for pausing…
Thank you, Eliza!
I do love seeing dragonflies. Sometimes, they’ve actually swarmed through my back yard, leaving me gaping with delight. And the thistle is gorgeous — such a pretty color!
I’m a huge fan of dragonflies, too, especially the blue ones! That must be an amazing sight to have a swarm of them flying through your yard. Caught the thistle out of the corner of my eye, I’m glad I noticed it. 🙂
Delicate beauty – not only the thistles (which are pretty even if we call them weeds) but the dragonfly and butterfly as well. This is perfection Barbara since everything is in the similar color scheme!
Thank you, Linda! What? Thistles are weeds? Not in my book! 🙃 I wasn’t feeling well that day but was hoping a walk would help. Seeing that huge great blue skimmer made it worth the effort, even if I couldn’t get a clear picture of it.
Not in my book either Barbara! One of my favorite pictures ever was of a Goldfinch at the Park perched on a Thistle … a lucky shot for me. I’ve only taken one dragonfly picture to date and that was only because it decided to stay on a trail and not move.
I love how we have so many memories about our photographs, where we were and how we got (or almost got) them, and how lucky we get sometimes! Sometimes the story behind the shot is just as interesting the picture itself. I’ve seen more dragonflies down here than I ever saw in Connecticut.
Yes, that’s for sure. I hope to see more Dragonflies – photographing them is something else. I have only seen Cabbage White butterflies and one Swallowtail this year. Maybe all these windy days are causing them to shelter somewhere?
I imagine the winged creatures would be hiding out from the wind. Nothing that flies enjoys navigating in turbulence!
I’m sure that is the reason and we have had day after day of very gusty wind – today would have been a nice outing, but the wind was 15 mph at 8:00 a.m. and by 10:00 or 11:00 25 mph gusts. Along the water, it’s no treat. I hope I see some pretty butterflies. I found one big moth with spots and got a photo of it. Google images told me it was an “Eight-Spotted Forester Moth” and that might have been my first moth photograph taken.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen an eight-spotted forester moth before. Love those orange leg warmers it seems to be wearing. 😉 Looking forward to seeing your picture!
It is unusual for sure Barbara … I have a butterfly and moth book I had from years ago, but it took me two seconds to do the Google image search.
I’ve been using the image search, too. Sometimes the results aren’t that definitive but they do give me a place to start looking elsewhere.
Yes, I would have spent a long time looking for that moth without Google Images. I once saw a Northern Mockingbird and before I knew about Google Images or the FB site “What’s that bird?” I spent a lot of time narrowing down the criteria and found a lot of birds that with similar characteristics … they all looked alike to me.
I’m the same way with some birds. It takes a lot of practice to notice the subtle differences in similar species. I like the “Similar Species” feature with each bird on the All About Birds website. It shows pictures of six similar ones for the northern mockingbird. If you click on one it tells you what the subtle differences are. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Mockingbird/id
Even so, I’m not sure I can discern the difference between the Carolina and black-capped chickadees!
Thanks for this link you sent me Barbara. I have been on this site and never noticed this feature before. I remember trying to narrow it down by body type, tail, color, etc. after Arnie, the elderly walker who has since passed away, and I saw it perched in a tree in the Winter. So he went home to consult his bird book and me to Google around. He never used a computer in his life, but had a bird guide from “Reader’s Digest” and showed it to me the next day. Yes, it looked like our bird that I had photographed and I didn’t know about the Google Image Search then. He was spot on, the old-fashioned way.
Some of the females are difficult to know what birds they are. Unless the female Red-winged Blackbird is in the marsh or near her mate, I don’t recognize her as a RWB.
That’s so true about the females. I thought I took a picture of a song sparrow but I must have sensed something slightly different about it. When I submitted it to What’s this Bird? they identified it as a female purple finch! I would never have figured that out on my own.
And my submisson to “What’s this Bird” came back a juvenile Eastern Starling. I would never have guessed that either!