As I was concentrating on taking photographs, Kara was following behind me. At one point, I thought I heard a flapping of wings nearby but saw nothing when I turned. Several minutes later, a grouse exploded into the air about 6 feet from where I was standing. It fluttered and didn't gain altitude, but was heading for the maple bush. Kara got quite excited and was bouncing into the air, watching the bird, but not approaching. I tried calling her back, to no avail.
The grouse eventually seemed to fly properly off into the woods, and Kara followed.
I suspect that the grouse was protecting a nest, and was doing the "hey look at me I'm a crippled bird" distraction. Do grouse do that? Do they nest in the open hay field?
Back to the images ....
I take back my previous comments about tripods. After a frustrating couple of days with lots of out-of-focus or soft images, I tried a tripod and ballhead today. I'm using a Canon 300mm f4 L lens, with 2X Canon teleconverter (very little effect on image quality!) and an extension tube.
The depth of field when wide open (f8) seems to be no more than a couple of millimetres! The slightest movement on my part puts the image out of focus. With the tripod, focusing was much more deliberate, and my percentage of "hits" increased dramatically. I was also able to stop down, typically to f11 (to increase depth of field), but sometimes more, and still get sharp images.
As a side note, I am using a Canon 5D Mk2 DSLR. It's a great camera, love it to bits. BUT, I do miss my old Canon film cameras, because they had much better focusing aids in the screen. I recall the little split screen for critical focusing, and the circular "waffle" pattern that would pop into focus when you were bang on. With the 5D, you basically have only a matte screen, and with a rig that is a bit dark like mine, it's a royal pain to try and get critically sharp. Yes, I could use Live View, but it would just slow me down even more. As it is, I often have no more than a few seconds before the insect of interest departs.
Anyway, a few new dragonfly portraits. The first one is of a dragonfly enjoying a snack. My best guess at an ID is a unicorn clubtail.
This fellow is resting on the leaf, causing it to curl. As the grasses in the hayfield get taller, there are fewer places for these fellows to land. The tall grass stalks don't support their weight.
Here's an attempt at a closeup of a dragonfly face. Quite neat, but one only a mother could love! A dot tailed whiteface, I think.
Finally, a side on view of another dragonfly of the same species (I know, I know, I need to try and identify these guys!)
The new predominant butterflies in the hayfield are these skippers - Long Dashes (Polites mystic) I think.
This one was feeding on a clover flower, and through the viewfinder, I could see it dipping its long black proboscis into the flower to get at the nectar. In this image you can see the proboscis clearly.
As I was taking images of this fellow, a second one landed and behaved a bit aggressively. The first one (top) held his ground, and would flutter his wings for intervals of a second or so. Eventually, the interloper left.
Here's an Arctic skipper (Carterocephalus palaemon) - I think!
I noticed a small green insect on these yellow flowers. It's a bee, Agapostemon virescens. The bright green metallic thorax is amazing! This is the first one I ever noticed, though apparently they are quite common. Something about old dogs and new tricks .......
Seemingly hanging mid air, this tiny (maybe 5 mm?) spider was simply hanging from a thread, with no web. The slightest breeze would set him swinging. This was the best shot I could get! Possibly a
goldenrod crab spider.
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