Dragonfly Sunday After two weeks of almost daily monsoon rains, Jornada Lake is finally deserving of the name again. Those little black dots are actually dragonflies. In the early morning the lake is abuzz with them. In the quiet and still desert air you can actually hear their wings clattering. It was that cloud of dragonflies that brought me down to the lake on a Sunday morning, both the lame digital camera and phone camera in hand, as well as binoculars and field guides. I literally brought a lawn chair to sit and watch as sometimes four or five couples would be ovipositing in the same muddy patch surrounded by creosote and mesquite bushes right in front of me, just a foot or two off the road. But you know I can't stay seated once I start seeing things like these little frogs hopping around Isn't he the cutest thing you ever saw? It's hard to tell on such a little fellow, but I'm thinking he is a red-spotted toad like the ones I find around the ranch house when it rains. Once I started looking in the water, I began to see all sorts of critters. We caught this odd thing - the mystery invertebrate. Maybe I can find out what he is today. He rather strongly resembles a horseshoe crab. Underneath his legs are bright red/orange. Aha! The hubby just found him in a field guide - he is a Tadpole Shrimp! Residents of temporary desert lakes, the eggs lie dormant in the soil until the rains come (if they come, we didn't have a lake here last year). The other tiny "tadpole" we caught may be a Fairy Shrimp, now that we are looking at the photo in the guide. This is a HUGE tadpole, easily four inches long. Look at that pretty golden eye! He has just got to be a bullfrog tadpole, he is a good four inches long. Oh yeah, dragonflies. Most of the dragonflies were of the larger varieties. I am sure of the bright green and blue Giant Darners. I had a brief glimpse of one large, bright golden yellow dragonfly who flew straight at me, then up and over my head. I only saw him one time, but I am thinking he was most likely a Wandering Glider. There were some Mexican Amberwings - their bright orange wings gleaming in the early morning light. The Variegated Meadowhawks, who we see frequently even on the ranch where it is dry, were well represented - probably the majority of the dragonflies there were Meadowhawks, including Cherry Faced Meadowhawks. Flame Skimmers greeted me the minute I stepped out of the car. Those are just the ones I'm fairly sure of. I didn't have a net, or I might have captured a few dozen in the first sweep and been able to give you a list of definate species! A couple of Vivid Dancers showed up to represent the damselfly family - wish I could have gotten a photo of those blue beauties. Our pretty little Desert Grassland Whiptails with their bright aqua tails were scurrying around the edges of the water, and I saw what I think was a Longnose Leopard Lizard who crossed a little finger of water as I was watching a pair of dragonflies who were ovipositing into it, trying to catch a photo. Reptiles, amphibeans, invertebrates - and last but hardly least - a bird! (See why I had to rename the blog?) It was quite shy and I never got a really good look, but I am guessing it was some sort of sandpiper or plover. Similar to a killdeer, but not as large with a high pitched sort of "churr" call. It was feeding in the shallows and doing a good job of staying concealed in tufts of grass. In flight it had quite long, pointed wings and showed me a brownish back and either a black or dark head or cap. Alas, I never got a really good look at him. :( You can see all of the photos here on my Flickr account. The hubby is calling me to eat - have a nice Sunday! Summer Posted: Sunday 20th July 2008, 1:31 PM Back to the Blog

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