I have come to realize that I had more pictures than the ones I had previously uploaded. These were the first pictures I took with my Macro lens. I have learned a thing or two about photographing Odonatans since then, so excuse the not so good pictures.
Thanks to @mwnhseehausen we have the first record of Anax guttatus, and the efforts to document different records of different species found here is proving to be very rewarding.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/14036731
Dear all,
iNaturalist has been an amazing experience, I have learned a lot, and got to set myself little photographic assignment. After reading Malte Seehausen work on Odonata, I decided to take some pictures of the Odonata that I could find around my garden. Malte Seehausen has been to kind to answer to my emails and help me identifying a fairly odd Dragonfly I caught in Bolkenat
It turned out that I had in my garden alone 5 species of Dragonflies, which is quite amazing. It had never occured me to photograph Dragonflies as they are pretty common around where I live (Palaban, near Paddy rice fields). As we prepare for the second harvest of rice I will continue to collect and keep posting pictures.
Yesterday I tried a "new spot" which is known here as Kolam Xina, it proved to be a relatively poor site at this time of the year, interestingly there were more individuals patrolling a small patch of Spinifex grass close to a small creek mouth than around the brackish water wetland it self. I could see three distinct Dragonflies, was only able to photograph one properly (Diplacodes), one improperly (Crocothemis?) and one could not photograph at all, because I was told that I had a Crocothemis next to me, but a communication problem as it was a grasshopper. So is life, at this time of the year I'm better off trying for more shaded and protected valleys, and record species along waterlines.
The Shot-horned Grasshopper https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/14100846
Not, not there at all...There is so much more to capture and photograph in and around Oe-Cusse. Based on Seehausen (2017) and references therein, there have been records of some two doze species found around this area, all of which I hope to find during my stay in Oe-Cusse.
It is amazing that Oe-Cusse alone hosts so many different Odonatans
Today I went out in the morning to spot Damsels and Dragonflies. The original site I hoped to go was a no go as I failed to finalize all the logistical arrangements to make it happen, I finished work yesterday sometime after 20:40. In the morning I went out with my little girl to Tono Noefefan (Tono river mouth) were I wanted to take better pictures of Scarlet skimmer I had seen a week ago patrolling a Spinifex grass patch. Much to my surprise I found a Dragonfly I had missed last time I was there. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/14339040 I'm still not sure what it is, but it kind of resembled a Wandering Glider, but it turned out to be a immature female of a Scarlet skimmer. My daughter got tired, and a friend joined me for Dragonfly spotting. We moved from the coastal areas more toward the city, walked in different gullies, but no luck, it is the peak of the dry season after all. We then moved into another coastal marsh, which has mainly Chalky Skimmers but no Scarlets. As we moved a friend dropped by and told us that he went to pick-up a couple of his pigs close to Aosnak river and the place was packed full of scarlets. We got on our motorbike and went to check the Aosnak river, which happen to be one of the rivers where I go regularly for work because we are building a bridge there. We arrived parked the motorbikes by a dirt road and went in. We saw a man fishing and several dragonflies flying around. We found Gliders and Skimmers https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/14338443 , https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/14338488. So not a bad day, no Scarlet skimmers but other pretty nice skimmers. Next week I'll focus on photographing Blue Odonatans.
I'm slowly adding in new records of Dragon and Damselflies from Oe-Cusse and in the process learning more about their behaviors and improving my overall knowledge of the different sites I visit along the way. So far I have learned that the best time of the year to spot Dragonflies in Oe-Cusse is in April - March (the months following the last rains, which tend to be in February). During the peak of the dry season, you can still spot them in Pante Macassar, Lifau (kolam xina, paddy rice field) in July is during the mornings from 9am - 12pm. In other sites like Aosnak river, Suco Nipane (5-15 meter above sea level) the best time in July has proven to from 10am - 3pm. The Aosnak site tends to be packed with birds (mainly swifts starting at 4pm - 5pm) at these times you tend to find D. trivialis.
The Odanatans I'm still to document and are known to occur here in Oe-Cusse are:
1-Agriocnemis femina 2- Austroallagma sagittiferum 3- Diplacodes haematodes 4-Orthetrum caledonicum 5- Orthetrum glaucum 6- Orthetrum pruinosum 7- Trithemis festiva 8- Trithemis aurora 9- Trithemis lilacina 10- Indolestes lafaeci
This list has been generated based on @mwnhseehausen research, which can be accessed by clicking here
So far I have recorded 12 species, but the Aosnak site has proved to be by far the best coastal site to do some "odanating" during the dry season. There I have recorded: Orthetrum Sabina - Orthetrum testaceum - Tramea stenoloba - Neurothemis ramburii
In some hours time I'll go back to Aosnak waterway. This time I'll spend more time there taking pictures and relaxing by the river. This time I'm going specifically to spot Saddlebag Gliders I'm still unsure which one of the species of Tramea we find in Aosnak T. loweii or T. stenolobata, what better way to confirm than to take better pictures and spend part of my weekend by the river. I'm taking some improvised nets to see if I can catch some butterflies as well.
I was not able to photograph and/or catch any Tramea in Aosnak today. I got take two bodies, the usual set up and my backup body (Olympus EPL 7 + M.Zuiko 75-300mm). Taking hand held pictures with a 300mm (eq. to 600mm in 35mm sensor) is fairly difficult and most of the photos lacked the sharpness I was after. While so, it was pretty rewarding to be able to take many pictures of Neurothemis ramburii as the main camera body-lens combination (Olympus OMD EM10 markii + MZuiko 60mm f2.8 macro) did not allow me to get as close as I wished to get and Neurothemis ramburii as I startled them every time I moved closer, so most of the pictures uploaded where taken with the backup body + telephoto lens combination.
Overall it was pretty relaxing, saw some Ischnura senegalensis matting, and some perchers laying eggs, which was all good fun. Saw a couple of nice wild fig trees which are bearing fruit, this spot may prove to be very good to document bats.
The Odanatans I'm still to document in Oe-Cusse remain: 1-Agriocnemis femina 2- Austroallagma sagittiferum 3-Brachythemis contaminate 4- Diplacodes haematodes 5-Orthetrum caledonicum 6- Orthetrum glaucum 7- Orthetrum pruinosum 8- Trithemis festiva 9- Trithemis aurora 10- Trithemis lilacina 11- Indolestes lafaeci
