Around the Pond

On a day off from running I biked over to Innovation Place with my camera to see what I could find around the pond. I enjoyed about 10 minutes of peace and quiet before several large family groups arrived to have family photos taken. Of course, they were complete with screaming babies and hyperactive kids. Not the kind of wildlife I wanted to photograph! Despite that, I managed a few photos. I didn't find any fishing or crab spiders but there were lots of dragonflies and damselflies. Most of the dragonflies were (I think) Four-spotted skimmers.

The damselflies were mostly Bluets:

and there were also some suitably named Pond Spreadwings:

The Linden trees were blooming and the bees were taking advantage.

The water lilies were flowering:

and even where they weren't, the leaves made interesting patterns among the reflections:

A lot of the border of the pond is these plants. I'd never bothered figuring out what they were, but Seek identified this inflorescence as Sweet-flag. The good part of identifying something is that you can then find out interesting facts about it. Like that it only flowers if it grows in water. And that it contains psychoactive chemicals. It was used in traditional medicine, but it can also be toxic.

I stopped by the office to check for mail (just junk) and found outside there was a different kind of green wall this year.

These were my favorite of the little flowers. Seek says they are Moss-rose Purslane, from South America.

As I was leaving, I was checking some lilies for crab spiders and I spotted this distinctive Leconte's Haploa moth. I don't think I've seen one of these before, but coincidentally, the next day when I was out running I spotted a dead one on the sidewalk. Interestingly, they make and hear sounds for courtship, and they can also hear bat sonar and respond with clicks warning the bat they are unpalatable due to chemicals ingested by the caterpillars.

On the way I spotted a small raptor. I thought maybe it was the American Kestrels I saw in the area last year. But when I enlarged the photos on the computer it turned out to be a Merlin. Humorously, I thought the ones last year were Merlins and they turned out to be Kestrels. I think the blue wing coloring makes it the Taiga variant. It was quite far away so it's not a great photo.

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