80AcresOnline

Besides the pretty pictures aspect (and I enjoy the pretty pictures, both taking them and seeing them online), photography has multiple uses that support wildlife and land management.  For instance…I’m almost at the pond and a weakly-flying near-dragonfly-sized insect flies up and lands on the underside of a small limb.   I can’t, with my eyesight, see it clearly.  I know it’s not a dragonfly, butterfly, or moth, but what is it?  If  I get too close it will fly away.

Enter the camera with a zoom lens:

Though I can’t see it clearly in real life, once the images  are  in the computer I can enlarge them, lighten them if necessary, and suddenly–I remember photographing the same insect last summer, when it was on a window screen.  It’s an adult ant-lion, and last summer, with the help of experts, I was able to give it a name, Euptilon ornatum. The presence of adult ant lions and immatures (found but not photographed) indicates successful reproduction here, which means we’re providing at least minimal habitat for them.

Similarly, I’ve documented dragonfly reproduction by photographing male and female of the same species, including ovipositing by the female.  Here’s a pair of Neon Skimmers, Libellula croceipennis; the female is coming down to “splash” her eggs onto an algal mat.

She uses the wide, rather spatulate final segments of her abdomen to scoop-and-splash as she releases an egg (you can see one, that white bit.)

In the past, I’ve also photographed odonate larvae in the pond, and the exuviae (the larval exoskeleton left behind when the adult emerges) but don’t have any current ones to show.    Having photographs of the complete life cycle documents successful reproduction but may be hard to find for all species.   I’ve also used photography to document possible disease (on a bird) and external parasites (mites on a dragonfly.)   Sometimes I don’t even see the interesting details through the lens, but something shows up in the computer that I can research and make note of.  The smaller and harder to see the “bug” or other wildlife (or plant), the more useful photography can be.

Photographs of wildlife using the pond to drink prove that it’s serving wildlife, not just stray cats.   We were clearing the iris overload out this week, which opened more surface for bees and wasps to drink:

This colorful wasp is using the half-rotted leaves and inner leaf fibers of iris as support while drinking.   R- found a scorpion as well as other insects in the iris root mat as he cut off the tops, but did not get a picture.

Back to the pretty pictures aspect.