Potpourri

Wednesday evening I wandered over to Great Meadows hoping for a spectacular sunset. Lately I haven't had much luck with sunsets and this evening was not about to break that streak. Of course, I wouldn't know that until later.

Here are a few of the sights that caught my eye as I waited for the sun to drop towards the horizon.


I love the banding of purple and white


The remains of a dead carp. I don't know what dragged the head onto the path. I liked how the sun was shining through the skull look like a death mask.


I loved the ways the berries gradually fade from the green of the leaves to darker blue.



Of course there were dragonflies. It appears that they prefer sun to shade. There weren't hanging out if their favorite morning spots. There were some new ones that I hadn't photgraphed before.


Twelve-spotted Skimmer


Female Common Pondhawk


Ruby / Cherry-faced Meadowhawk


As the sun started to set it was apparent that there wasn't going to be much color reflecting off of the clouds. A person walking on the cross dike trail started waving towards me to come. At the water control gate between the impoundments there was a beaver swimming back and forth eating some of the aquatic vegetation. As the sun continued to drop on the horizon, the warm light started to reflect off of the reeds causing these wonderful colors in the water.




It was the evening for hot tips. As I hung out on the observation deck with Will Martens watching the last of the light disappear a lady came up and told us about this interesting bird down by the canal. Wandering back I had to us my pop-up flash to photograph this juvenile Black-crowned Night-Heron. (Thanks to Will for the identification.)