Each year it’s a happy time when we again realize that while increased leaf cover and more secretive nesting behavior may make birds harder to observe other beautiful and fascinating things have taken their place. The other things that enchant, as we explore area parks, are the butterflies and dragonflies.

These creatures are a lot like small birds in the sense that you must get close up and personal in order to really appreciate them. At a distance they look like just another LBFI. For starters an essential tool is a pair of close focus binoculars, minimum focus distance of 6 – 7 ft. If you are like me that may soon give way to the desire to photograph them either as an aid to identification or for the record. That’s when you really start to notice how fascinating and beautiful they are. The next thing you may notice is their behavior like the pond surface tapping of a female dragonfly depositing eggs or the unique flight patterns of various butterflies. The more you observe and learn the more enchanting it all becomes.

Dragonfly heaven, Prairie Oaks Metro Park.

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That’s not to say that we’ve given up on the birds. During recent insect outing I was hoping for a good shot of an Indigo Bunting but the one seen was just a little too far away.

Again too far away for a good picture but it is an Indigo Bunting.

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A few other birds were a little closer.

A Brown Thrasher plays hide and seek in the leaf cover.

Certainly not trying to hide, this singing Protonotary Warbler was amazing hard to find but once spotted hard to ignore. It’s cavity nest wasn’t far from this perch.

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Gradually as we work our way through June the bulk of nature’s activity increasingly revolves around the insects. A major menu item for many of the now stealthier birds, it’s impossible to ignore them while exploring areas such as Darby Bend Lakes in Prairie Oaks Metro Park. On a recent outing dragonflies and damselflies seemed to be everywhere and was made all the more exciting when a dragonfly that my wife spotted turned out to be the first recorded sighting in central Ohio!

Double-striped Bluet, (Donna).

Smaller than a Halloween Pennant a beautiful Calico Pennant poses for the camera.

Damselflies often are seen flying among the leaves of low lying bushes making them easy prey for the orb weaver spider.

Female Blue-ringed Dancer

Damselflies can be friendly.

Powdered Dancer

Blue-fronted Dancer.

Male Ebony Jewelwing, (Donna).

Halloween Pennant

Mating Halloween Pennants.

Female Widow Skimmer

A male Widow Skimmer dining on what appears to be a damselfly.

Male Eastern Pondhawk

One of the larger, but very common, dragonflies this female Eastern Pondhawk dines on a small insect, (Donna).

Fawn Darner

The Swift Setwing is one of the larger dragonflies and this sighting was the first recorded in central Ohio. Over the past few years it has slowly been working it’s way north perhaps due to such factors as global warming, (Donna)

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Butterfly Weed

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And as if the dragonflies weren’t enough during the past few weeks we’ve been treated to sightings of an amazing variety of other insects. So much so, that at times it was a bit overwhelming!

The medium size Eastern Comma Butterfly.

Eastern Comma another view, (Donna).

The medium size Great Spangled Fritillary, (Donna).

Another view of the Great Spangled Fritillary.

Virginia Ctenucha Moth

Red Admiral.

On a warm day the medium size Hackberry Emperor often lands on exposed skin to take advantage of the goodies in ones perspiration.

The beautiful marking on the underside of the Hackberry Emperor’s wings.

Monarch Butterfly.

A Monarch Butterfly shows the underside of it’s wings.

As far as we can remember this is the first time we’ve seen a Delaware Skipper, (Donna).

A very rare view of the top side of the very small female Eastern-tailed Blue Butterflies wings, (Donna).

A very common medium sized Orange Sulfur Butterfly.

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Sometimes it’s hard to believe your eyes, such was the case a number of years ago when we saw our first hummingbird moth. We continue to be amazed.

Snowberry Clearwing Moth, Donna

Another view, (Donna).

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Pearl Crescent, a common, beautiful, but smaller butterfly, (Donna).

Duskywing, a fast flying smaller butterfly.

The Silver Spotted Skipper butterfly is one of the larger skippers that we’ve observed to have an rather fearless attitude toward other flying insects. (Donna).

A Hoverfly pollenates on a Black-eyed Susan.

A very small long legged fly taxes the closeup capability of a Tamron 18-400 mm zoom.

Recently not far from our house we were thrilled to see Michigan Lilies in bloom

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It’s always hard to know when to stop as there are always more pictures that could be part of the post based on their merit. However, realizing that the photographer is usually more excited about pictures taken than those looking at them I’ve decided to show some compassion and stop here. At the very least I hope this post inspire nature lovers to get out and take a closer look and find that which enchants.

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Thanks for stopping by.

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Hey wait, what about me!

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