Male Argia plana
Went out with the crew looking for an interesting Argia sp. posted here (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/8286492) by @alchemist2000. I found numerous A. plana, some deviating a little from the standard looks and a few A. immunda. In nearby habitats A. sedula was present as well as Enallagma civile.
Even though we didn't see quite what we had come for I had a great time and it was good to see a lot of friends, meet some new ones and check out LLELA's new visitor center and their nice photo display and resources.
Male Hetaerina americana
Justin and I headed to LLELA to look for shadowdragons and clubtails.
No...I could not get a clean angle without that twig in the right creeping in...
Male Gomphurus vastus
Very captivating species. Saw on a walk while looking for cruisers with my brother.
Female Macromia illinoiensis with wing aberration
I have never seen or never noticed this in an odonate's wing cells before. It looks to have originated from within (as seen by one set of patterning that is incomplete, and the basic restriction to wing cell borders).
Unfortunately I didn't notice at the time so I didn't get closer shots.
Went over to Village Creek Historic Area to look for the Limpkin. Ran into Brentano -- didn't spot the bird at first... until I was looking at my photos and found it hanging out in the background! :)
This guy was sitting out in the middle of the river. He was perched on a tree that was slumped over. Not to sure what kind of cormorant this is. I know that we mainly get Double- Crested up here but I am not sure if this one is or not. Normally they are a grayer bird but this one was much darker.
Headed down to the Lower Rio Grande Valley to search for some beetles, and I stopped at this little park close to the coast to look for some shells and other stuff.
Crested Caracara
near Palmetto State Park,
Gonzales Co., Texas
28 December 1980
this image scanned from 35mm slide
I was the compiler of the Palmetto State Park CBC in 1980. During the count, observers counted nearly 100 Crested Caracaras going to roost at dusk. This represented the largest number of Crested Caracaras ever reported on a single CBC at that time. @gcwarbler and I returned to the area before dawn the next morning and were able to document this concentration of caracaras. The two images here are some of the shots I took on that occasion. I later published a paper on this occurrence in the Bulletin of Texas Ornithology. A link to that issue is below and the article is available if anyone is interested.
https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/tos/v15n01-02/btos_v15n01-02.pdf