Journal archives for August 2017

August 2, 2017

My first trip to Sonora Park July 25, 2017

With my my mom being sick and stuff I was not able to go to that moth night last week on Tuesday. I was able to go to Sonora park to do some dragonfly hunting. My friend @lulubelle told me about it on Facebook in one of our conversations about dragonflies. She said it was a great place to look for much diversity in the local Arlington area. It is pretty diverse in its species I will just say that right now. It is one of the best local parks I have ever been too. It maybe a great place to go birding in the winter time. Anyway my aunt and I arrived and the place looked packed. There was a lot of sporting events going on at the soccer field and stuff and then we found the second parking lot. I got my camera only to find that I had left the stupid SD card at home. I had to use the camera data which I hate doing because it had limited RAM memory and only takes a hand full of photos. Anyway glad their wasn't that much to find that day. I did find quite a few things thought that I had not seen before and a few old favorites. I did find a few herons like a Green Heron and a Little Blue Heron. That doesn't happen that often with me. To be quite frank I don't think that has ever happened to me. I didn't photograph them though because this trip was strictly to photograph the odes of the park. I will have to go again with my SD card to get everything. I started to find Dragons pretty early. I found a Twelve Spotted Skimmer pretty early on. I watched him for a little bit but he didn't stop to land at all. I went on after a while and came across a Jade Clubtail sitting on a twig that was sticking up out of the water. It wasn't a very bright green colored creature it was more like a fleshy color like it was a young one just hardening or something like at tendril kind of form that your not supposed to catch with a net. It did have the tail of one though but at the time I was baffled by its appearance and didn't know what I was really looking at at that time. I went down a ways and I felt this tug on my shoulders; it was my aunt and she was telling me there was one in the tree I was next too. Turned out it was a male Roseate Skimmer. I hadn't seen one of those since I went to that odonata event with @sambiology and @brentano down at Elmer W. Oliver Nature Park. I was very happy to find another male. The last few I have seen have all been females. I just love the color of the males; it almost looks like a juice or wine color to them. I went down around the bend and started to notice a few damselflies in the grassy areas by the edge of the pond. Carefully I was able to get a shot of a really pretty Rambur's Forktail. I have not seen one of those till this year and I think they are one of the prettiest I have seen. The green, black, and blue colors are a great mix on that creature. I like that a lot; of course they are no Great Spreadwings I will tell you that. I do like them though don't get me wrong I have not been disappointed with what I have found. I just love all 37 species I have seen. I also have a couple that have not been identified yet. The 37 is just the confirmed ones I have written down. Still that is not a bad number. Most of the odes on that list have been found this year alone. Well around the last bend I found something that looked like a bumblebee and to me it looked like a bee but it was actually some kind of Robberfly. It was a very fascinating little creature. Well the day was getting late and it was time to go home. I had fun that day and I had a lot of fun uploading my catch to iNaturalist. I just can't get enough of this site; it is the most interesting and most addictive site I know. I am on this thing almost everyday.

Posted on August 2, 2017 10:12 AM by galactic_bug_man galactic_bug_man | 4 observations | 0 comments | Leave a comment