July 14, 2010

Dragonflies of Willamette Mission State Park

Sunday we visited a state park south of Portland along the Willamette river. We have been here before and always find lots of dragonflies. This time we found mosquitoes too. Argh.



It turned out to be a warm sunny day and the dragonflies were out hunting for insects to eat on Mission Lake.



We made a loop around the park looking for birds and bugs.
We saw this warning, but didn't see any cougar.





After my recent encounter with the Olive-sided Flycatcher, I hope I'm correct in saying this is a Western Wood-Pewee? He sallied down from the branches in search of bugs.



I looked up most of these dragonflies and tried to ID them. If you think I have any labeled wrong, please let me know. I wasn't sure about this green guy.



Western Pondhawk


Western River Cruiser


Tule Bluet


Eight spotted Skimmer



Western Pondhawk again.



Pacific Forktail- hard to see in this photo, but they have four small blue dots on their abdomen.

These two videos show a dragonfly laying eggs in the water. If you turn up your volume you can hear a Swainson's Thrush in the background and in one video you can hear a bullfrog. It captures the mood of the area quite well.







Finally, an almost cooperative butterfly! I think this is a Satyr Anglewing.





On the drive home we enjoyed scenic Oregon.

3 comments:

  1. A wonderful walk in the park. Great captures of the dragonflies. You saw a nice variety too.

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  2. awesome insect sightings!

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  3. Enjoyed you dragon fly outing and all the beautiful photos. That bust have been fun trying to video take those guys moving around so quickly. Very nice job.

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