As I came into the woods around midday, this dragonfly zoomed up in front of me, flew a big circuit, then landed, hanging vertically, right in front of the camera. Who could resist, especially when it was a species new to me: the Pale-faced Clubskimmer, Brechmorhoga mendax.	This gorgeous color contrast begged for a picture...yes, it's a spider, but ignore that and look at the colors. The plant is eryngo (not a thistle, just looks like one) and the spider is a green lynx spider, Peucetia viridans.
Smallest of the skipperlings is the tiny golden Southern Skipperling, Copaeodes minima. Though it's small, its color is vivid enough to be worth the sweat involved in following a busy little skipperling through the grass until it's ready to perch.
This is only the third owlfly I've seen--it came fluttering past and landed on a stalk of grass, then immediately lifted its abdomen. The butterfly-like antenna are stretched forward, flat against the grass, and the wings are folded--damsel-fly-like--behind. Owlflies are strange creatures.	We have milkweeds of at least two species blooming in the near meadow and elsewhere. Among the commonest butterflies nectaring there is the Dusky-blue Groundstreak, Calycopis isobeon.
This young male Eastern Pondhawk, Erythemis simplicicollis, caught and devoured its prey in the front yard....not far from where Dusky-blue Groundstreaks were nectaring. And that's probably what this dragonfly caught.
A little over two years ago, I took this picture of Blondie, one of my cows, with her calf that year, a heifer I named Streaker, for the stripes down her sides.	Just a few days ago, I had a chance to photograph Streaker and her first calf. She's grown into a good-sized cow and as we worked the cattle through the pens, I could see that Streaker had all the right instincts.

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