I could have seen this coming, if I had known how tasty a closed hibiscus bud could be to a grasshopper.
I turned away for a few minutes after taking the photos in my post Green Grasshopper, Foreshadowing, with him on a leaf. and when my attention returned to him he had moved.
And found lunch.
The closed bud was pretty dense and he was working hard to gnaw the top off.
A piece of bamboo stuck in a plant pot has become a regular perch for dragonflies on my patio this summer.
This Great Blue Skimmer was very tolerant of me walking around him to get different flowers in the background.
He did lift off a few times, but came right back.
I didn’t know it at the time I, but this image foreshadowed the grasshopper’s intentions.
Hibiscus for lunch!
A backyard visitor, this green Grasshopper was lounging in the morning sun on a potted hibiscus.
The eyes are pretty interesting, especially looking at him head on.
Green on green, he’s got good camouflage on this leaf. I found out a bit later it wasn’t just the camo, or the leaf, he was interested in.
I saw these three dragonflies in the same area on June 10 and was struck by the different perches and poses they use.
A dragonfly perched with the abdomen pointing up is known as being in the obelisk pose or obelisking.
So what is pointing down? Anti-obelisking or just going with gravity?
Commonly they perch parallel to the ground.
Donnelley Wildlife Management Area
June 10, 2021
My apologies to anyone who got a notice that I’d published this post then it wasn’t available. I clicked Publish by mistake while I was checking why I didn’t finish the post, so unpublished it. This is a good reminder for me to tag posts when I start them with the location and add the date. Thinking I’ll remember is just not going to happen.
I like the image for the mottled background and shape of the twig, so I’m clicking Publish intentionally now.
April 22, 2021
Caw Caw County Park, Charleston, SC
A dragonfly, resting on a dried twig in front of now forgotten orange vegetation.
Taken at the Okefenokee Swamp back in April, I hadn’t published this post as I work on learning more about dragonfly ID. Cleaning up my drafts today, and I think this is a female Great Blue Skimmer.
A number of dragonflies used the fence protecting the flower garden at Middleton Place as a resting spot.
July 7, 2021
I spent much of yesterday afternoon photographing dragonflies on my back patio.
This particular dragonfly, identifiable by the missing section of his right hindwing, landed on several plant stakes but kept coming back to a Melissa Balm flower head.
I was able to move around the plant, effectively changing the background.
And I got a head nod.
Well, I didn’t actually catch her doing it despite several minutes of trying but it was interesting to watch. The largest open area in the water was her target so I tried focusing on that and got this one decent image.
