My Random Thoughts – Page 2 – My random thoughts on gardening, roses, bird watching, and other things involving photography, the outdoors, and writing.

Dragonflies and Damselflies

By: Amy
June 25, 2023

I’ve been trying to observe and learn about Odonata, that is, Dragonflies and Damselflies, and I’ve made slow progress but some progress. Seems like every time I observe and identify a new species, I mess up on the identification of other species that I’ve observed in the past and should know. But I’ve been working on identification and thought I would mention a few tricks. These learning tricks work for me but everyone is different. For me, I can only pick up so ...

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Birding, Nature, Odonate, Photography, Roses

Common Baskettail Dragonfly, Epitheca cynosura

By: Amy
March 20, 2023

On March 19, 2023 I finally got to see my first Common Baskettail dragonfly, Epitheca cynosura, as well as my first Blue Corporal, Ladona deplanata. To be honest, I’ve probably seen them in the past but simply hadn’t been able to identify them. So I’m really thrilled to see them. Spring is certainly here, that’s for sure. Everything is just covered with pollen, including the dragonflies and damselflies as well as every surface including inside my house. The daffodils ...

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Birding, Nature, Odonate, Photography

Argia Publication – Furtive Forktails, Ischnura prognata

By: Amy
March 15, 2023

My article on Furtive Forktails, Ischnura prognata, is being published in the Argia! It will be in the next issue (which I believe is March 2023). I’m so thrilled I can hardly type this. The Argia is a publication produced by the Dragonfly Society of the Americas and if you are at all interested in dragonflies or damselflies or both, I heartily recommend joining. There is a blog that often has really useful species information as well as a quarterly news journal called the Argia and a ...

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Nature, Odonate, Photography

Happy Holidays and Furtive Forktails

By: Amy
December 20, 2022

Happy Holidays to everyone! I hope the holiday season is a magical time full of happiness and laughter. I always love the holidays especially as it gives me an excuse to do some cooking and baking. This time of year is always an excuse to make a nice loaf of multigrain bread–it’s my big treat because we are on a low carb diet (like everyone else, it seems) so I only bake bread a few times a year. As it turns out, this is also when I finally decided to write up my observations ...

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Nature, Odonate

Common Where Found

By: Amy
October 13, 2022

We have a biologist friend who, when writing papers about difficult-to-find/uncommon/even rare critters will use the phrase, “common where found” to indicate that while the species may be difficult to find, if you do find it, you may find several (or more) of them. Furtive Forktails, Ischnura prognata, has the reputation of being hard to find, but I’m finding it’s more a case of “common where found” because they seem to be fairly common in the swamp near ...

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