Month: July 2008

For awhile today at Steilacoom I almost felt I was a child again, sitting by the banks of Lake Washington fascinated by dragonflies and frogs, though I resisted wading hip deep in the water because I remembered how mad that made mother, and the water was really-really green looking.

Of course, I think in those days I thought all dragonflies were the same, and now that I’m older and much smarter I realize I don’t know what half of the dragonflies are.

But here’s my favorite, a Blue-Eyed Darner,

a Common Whitetail,

a Cardinal Meadowhawk,

and this unidentified Damselfly

and here’s a big bullfrog that seemed irritated that I had interrupted his hunting. He’s just lucky that I wasn’t taking pictures with my childhood friend, because his family considered frog legs a great delicacy,

though I could never bring myself to taste them.

Lately I’ve been wondering why I haven’t seen any Tiger Swallowtails around my yard, though I’d been seeing them flitting around Belfair and Nisqually.

They seem late this year, but yesterday while we were eating dinner I noticed that one had landed on the Crocosmia and seemed to be hanging around instead of just flitting by. I excused myself, to my camera and spent the next ten minutes taking pictures:

I’d never seen a Swallowtail so indifferent to movements around him, but I’m certainly not complaining because I love how the red flower contrasts with the yellow and black:

I cancelled today’s bird trip for lack of sunshine. I’m not using $45 of gasoline if the sun refuses to make an appearance, though I might be forced to change my mind after summer ends.

Luckily yesterday’s photos taken in the front yard had lots of sunshine, which is quite apparent in this shot

where the hummingbird seems to be made of precious metals, and in this shot
marked by the contrast between the deep, green shadows and the red flower and hummingbird.