What There's Time For

The walks are starting to blur together, particularly the ones at our standby loop on a local town land trust. Fetch in the field, swim in the river, hike the loop, swim in the river, fetch in the field again, back in the car.

All times become each time, as if we took a hike for weeks and weeks, circling back to the same spot with no breaks and no loss of charm in the repetition.

I’ve had some time to practice taking photos of the ubiquitous damselflies. I thought this one was sufficiently artsy to be included.

Damselfly identification is a huge pain. This one may be the same species I’ve photographed before in Vermont, a Black-winged Damselfly or Ebony Jewelwing. The female Calopteryx maculata has a white spot at the tip of the wing. Her wings tend to be less dark too, but in this photo, that’s not particularly helpful.

I’m still working on acquiring the knowledge of all three hundred or so birds who spend at least part of the year in New England, but once I’m done, if there’s still time left over, maybe I’ll move on and learn about all hundred and fifty odonates.