More bug and bird photos

I have been more inclined to read than to write, lately, and I am at the moment occupied reading George Monbiot's Heat: How to stop the planet from burning. I am not yet sure whether it is a hopeful book or a depressing one--he proposes, at the beginning, that the 80% carbon emissions reduction estimated by many climate scientists to be needed to avoid catastrophic global warming is wrong, and that a 90% reduction is actually required. Then he says he thinks it can be done. Given that the less-than-10% goal of Kyoto has not been met, if for no other reason than having been effectively sabotaged by the United States, his claim that a 90% reduction can be reached has caught my interest--but I am closer to the beginning of the book than the end.

One thing he says at the outset--and I am sure he is right about it--is that sporadic individual action, however well intended, won't suffice, and that persuading governments in the developed world to take action is the key.

But more of this later, perhaps, after I finish the book. For now, here are some Tuesday pictures of Town Lake wildlife.

This is a female American rubyspot, Hetaerina americana



Another female rubyspot



...and a male American rubyspot



A snowy egret.


click any image to enlarge

Monday at Zilker Park

Here is a miscellany of photos I took in Zilker today, first below Barton Springs, and then in Zilker Gardens.

These gadwalls and the snowy egret were sharing a rock in the middle of Barton Creek below the dam.



Another pair of gadwalls resting on a flat rock by the bank.



Fox squirrel by the creek



Here are two desert firetails (Telebasis salva) on a lily pad in Zilker Gardens. They have just mated, and the female is now in the process of laying eggs. The male is still attached to her head. Odonate sex, like all sex, looks strange. The male attaches behind the female's head, then the female reaches up with the end of her abdomen to fertilize her eggs at the male genitalia. Then she can lay the eggs, which is what's going on here. With some odonates, like these desert firetails, the male remains attached to the female's head while the egg-laying is going on. I am not sure why.



This is another great spreadwing, Archilestes grandis. Zilker Gardens is the only place I seem to find them.


Click any photo to enlarge

Tuesday photo miscellany

Today I am afraid I will disappoint those visitors who come to this blog hoping for political diatribes, startling anecdotes, unfair and unbalanced philosophical viewpoints, or simply gossip. Maybe later.

As is usual lately, I've been out taking photographs. Unlike political blogging, nature photography works to keep the cortisol situation outside the danger zone. Here is a photo miscellany from the past few days.

Western ribbon snake, Thamnophis proximus. This species is highly variable. Our central Texas variety usually has a red stripe down the back, as this one does.



Fiery skipper, Hylephila phyleus, on a Palafoxia flower.



Black vulture landing at a vulture roost in the middle of Landa Park in New Braunfels, Texas. The roost is on an island in a small lake fed by Comal Springs, the largest natural spring in the state. It's quite a beautiful setting for a vulture roost. Cormorants and red-tail hawks also like it.



Turkey vulture overhead near Onion Creek



The damselfly that I mentioned in an earlier post, that I could not identify. I am reasonably certain it is a smoky rubyspot, Hetaerina titia. This species is also highly variable in appearance. I took a photo of one in Belize that was much darker.


Click any photo to enlarge

Three odonates

The first two are damselflies. The great spreadwing and the Comanche dancer belong to different families of damselflies. Unlike most damselflies, spreadwings hold their wings out from their body when at rest.

Great spreadwing, Archilestes grandis



Comanche dancer, Argia barretti



The dragonfly is a a black setwing, Dythemis nigrescens, a mostly Mexican species.


All were photographed at the Zilker botanical gardens in Austin. Click to enlarge any photo.

Recent close-ups

This is a giant swallowtail Papilio cresphontes, which landed in deep shade a few feet from me as I walked along Slaughter Creek.



This is a tiny brown butterfly, most likely a fatal metalmark (Calephelis nemesis) or possibly a Rawson's metalmark (Calephelis rawsoni). They can only be told apart in the field if you have a ventral view of the hindwing, and since it was disinclined to fold its wings and I was unable to get below a butterfly on the ground, I am guessing this is the more common of the two species, C. nemesis. I don't know why it's called a fatal metalmark. A brief search on the web shed no light on the matter.



Here is a blue dasher (Pachydiplax longipennis) which has almost worn out its wings. I like blue dashers not only because they are nice looking dragonflies but because it's easy to take pictures of them, and they also assume nice poses occasionally.



This damselfly is a tough one to identify. I think it is a female dusky dancer, Argia translata, but females of Argia species are very hard to ID with certainty.



click on any photo to enlarge

This blog is going on vacation for two weeks, maybe three. Hasta entonces.