{"id":1061,"date":"2007-06-12T02:23:00","date_gmt":"2007-06-12T02:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/?p=1061"},"modified":"2014-10-01T03:33:18","modified_gmt":"2014-10-01T03:33:18","slug":"a-few-aerialists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/?p=1061","title":{"rendered":"A few aerialists"},"content":{"rendered":"

I won’t pretend to know what I’m talking about here, so take anything I say with a grain of salt! I find dragonflies and damselflies to be a nice distraction when there’s not much else to look at and an integral part of any streamside, pondside, or bog experience. Identifying them is quite a challenge, but I pay the most attention to their differing behaviors and flight styles.
<\/span>\"\"<\/a>I found this Blue Corporal dragonfly at Webb’s Mill early in the spring; in fact I think they are one of the first you might find flying in the Pine Barrens. They seem very territorial and like to perch on the ground.
<\/span>\"\"<\/a>I wouldn’t even atempt to ID this bluet; they’re so tiny that even seeing them clearly is a challenge! Bluets are damselflies; they rest with their wings closed and have very thin bodies.
<\/span>\"\"<\/a>This is a beauty of a damselfly from yesterday at Webb’s Mill Bog – I’m calling it an Ebony Jewelwing because I don’t know any better. Unlike a bluet, this damselfly was hard to miss as it flew butterfly-like along the path ahead of me. While its’ body looks mostly blue in this pic, it also looked green when the sunlight hit it at a different angle. Really stunning! I also saw a similar-looking brownish damselfly, which I assume is the female.<\/p>\n

A great book I’ve recommended in the past is the Stokes’ Beginner’s Guide to Dragonflies – it’s by no means extensive, but a beginner like me doesn’t need the added confusion of a complete guide.<\/p>\n

I’ve also had the experience of dragonflies laying eggs in my backyard pond and often come across the nymphs when doing pond maintenance or cleaning out the skimmer. I wish I had pics to share with you because they are so interesting to look at. I’m not sure what exactly the nymphs find to eat out there, but I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that they prey on goldfish fry.
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I won’t pretend to know what I’m talking about here, so take anything I say with a grain of salt! I find dragonflies and damselflies to be a nice distraction when there’s not much else to look at and an integral part of any streamside, pondside, or bog experience. Identifying them is quite a challenge, … Continue reading A few aerialists<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3536,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2,8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1061"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.somewhereinnj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}