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One group of insects that most people love or at least appreciate are dragonflies. Of course dragonflies are not flies but belong to the order Odonata. The other insects you may know in this order are damselflies. I always think of my mom when I think of dragonflies. She had this this notion the the big green darners around our house would sting and she told me to watch out for them.

These big green dragonflies are commonly called darners or darning needles. One day I found out why when I manged to catch one in my hand. The insect twisted its abdomen around and poked repeatedly at my hand. It started me but I hung on to the insect, the mystery of my mother's fear and the name resolved.

No darners in my yard but I do have some interesting dragonflies, mainly in a group called skimmers. They get their name, as I recall, because they seem to skim the surface of the water when they lay their eggs.

This wonderful 12 spot skimmer nicely cooperated and kept returning to its perch in my garden, letting me get pretty close before leaving. Click on the image to go to my Flickr stream for a larger view.

There are are also widow skimmers in my yard. I had forgotten just how much sexual dimorphism there can be in dragonflies.

First the male with a greyish bloom and the same sort of grey in the wings as the 12 spot:

Next the female. Note she has no grey bloom at all.

Hoping every one has a good Independence Day.

By the way this picture was taken with my cell phone as I was walking to my office...no SLR camera with me today. I find that even when I have my SLR its often useful to take a picture with my cell phone as well. It forces me to really frame the image. I wonder if other folks use their cell phone cameras in the same way.

At Baker wetlands today I found this wonderful fishing spider. These guys hunt for other critters walking on the surface of the water, much like water striders or "Jesus bugs" do.

Now to me this creature is beautiful and wonderful and yet many people I know just don't see it that way; in fact there is some evidence that fear of things such as spiders and snakes may be innate in humans. Of course this is reflected in how we portray spiders, insects and in fact arthropods in general. For example last week my wife and I watched part of a horrible grade B movie called Princesss of Mars. The good guys-even the alien good guys clearly were vertebrate type critters. But of course bad guy spider like critters put in several appearances.

Now sometimes the arthropoid critters are the good guys-and I am thinking of District 9 where the arthropoid aliens, appropriately called "prawns" are meant to provide the audience with away to examine our own human failings.

Speaking of movies that make us examine ourselves, I highly recommend Splice. I had seen the trailiers on TV but had pretty much dismissed the movies as yet another science gone awry horror flick. However my son urged us to give it a look and I was pleasantly surprised. And there were no arthropoid monsters. Only human ones.

Today I decided to celebrate the return of the sun by visiting Prairie Park. Turns out today Parks and Rec was burning the prairie areas. According to Marty Birrell at the Prairie Park Nature Center, the prairie areas are on a three year burn cycle.

Clicking on the image will take you to my photo stream and more pictures of the burn.

My son and I had the pleasure of seeing a large flock of snow geese at Baker Wetlands and got a small feel for what it must have been like when such flocks numbered in the millions. Click the image to see larger sizes on my photostream.

poised for fish

the reflection still

like nothing else

I hate year end reviews, which will probably be doubled in number this year since people have this idea that years that end in nine or zero are somehow important. For those that LIKE year end reviews the NY Times has done all the work for you with the 9th Annual Year in Ideas. This review includes semi serious stuff such as the epidemiology of zombies, and the latest in high fashion "Stiletto Claws", to sobering ideas such as the notion that evolutionary innovations in the biosphere have led to mass extinctions "Life's Greatest Hits" to "Lithium in the Water Supply".

Check it out at http://www.nytimes.com/projects/magazine/ideas/2009/

They did miss a few such as iPhones as musical instruments but nobody's perfect.

This is as close to a year end review you will get from me. I promise.

This jumping spider is maybe an 1/8" long. It is currently hanging out among my house plants.

Even the simplest most every day happenings reveal surprises when seen at a different scale or a different speed. Enjoy this video of falling water drops coalescing with the surface of water. There are at least two effects going on here as the video explains.

Tip of the antennae to Sarah S for the find.

Click on each picture to see better views from my photo stream...