I present to you: the largest dragonfly in the world, featuring my face for size comparison! :P Photos simply don't convey its sheer size and bulk but hopefully having something for comparison helps.
Anyway, story time! This guy was flying around erratically for at least an hour and a half since we arrived - I assume due to the missing wing half. I hadn't seen it myself but a couple of my friends had, and it somehow hit me in the side of the head and quickly flew off. :P
Anyway, while we were all chilling around the river, it decided to fly straight into the waterfall (in the background in pic 3) and was promptly swept downstream. What else could I do?? I jumped in and chased after it! 😂
As you can tell from the photos, my swim was successful, and I ended up with the most enormous dragonfly I have ever seen right before me. :P I can't even properly describe how enormously huge it was. And those amazing cerci! I gave it some time to dry off, but being humid tropical Queensland, it wasn't happening very quickly. It was more than happy to sit on my hand and so I wondered if it would prefer somewhere a bit higher and drier :P
So that is how it ended up on my face! As it dried and we were plagued by march flies, the obvious solution was to give him one to eat. He accepted it gratefully and somehow ate the entire thing in a single bite. Hopefully that goes a way into showing just how huge and formidable these guys are! Not content, he then sliced his huge mandibles into my nose -_- and had to be gently prized off. He slowly lapped up blood for a while after but luckily didn't do any more biting! If I squint in the mirror I can still see a faint line there now :P
He sat for about an hour before we had to leave and I left him on a shrub. I hope he was okay with half a wing missing, but there wasn't much else I could do. All in all one of the best experiences of my life! :D
First photo is by Haley Harding because I am incapable of taking selfies :P
Complete metamorphosis from nymph to adult form
Krumholtz western hemlock!
Olympic Mountains Washington State, location private to protect the dwindling populations of NSO in Washington.
A large canvas of my bear photo hung in the BC Legislature. Our local MLA claimed it helped pursued the Premier to totally ban Grizzly Bear trophy hunting in BC. Keep shooting photos, they can make a difference !
I sent this photo to a Forest Service friend who along with state and federal biologists were able to trap and collar her. She is the first female grizzly to be collared in Washington State. I have (trail camera) photos from the following year of her two cubs in my other observations.
Sometimes you just gotta mash the shutter for too long
Seedlings with cotyledons at ground level.
One single plant, growing somewhat close to a trail and six feet from its host plant. New location for this plant as far as I can tell. Never been recorded here before, even in the herbarium records.
Probably not native at this location. Near the US Coast Guard building. Jokingly referred to as the "St. Paul National Forest," probably the tallest tree on the island.
Drama. These guys all normally get along pretty well, but here a squirrel decided to start something and nearly got kicked in the head as reward. Moments later they were back to munching sunflower seeds side-by-side again.
Approximate location. There were quite a few of these trees in the montane, mid-portion of the trail.
My bf found this on a hike. ID?
I managed to catch the moment where two Juniperus virginiana pollen grains' intines expanded and ruptured their exines. I think the first probably helped trigger the second. Check out this paper for more on the mechanism at work here.
Measurements
Unruptured exines
23–27×21–25 μm; Q=1.01–1.15
Images
All slides in water
1: External intines hydrating and expanding to rupture exines
2: Intact pollen grains
3: Ruptured pollen grains
4: Habit