Lady, is that a spider on your butt?

Alternative title: Happy Halloween!

This is probably my favorite of all the dragons - the Halloween Pennant (Celithemis eponina) and they are abundant in the fields right now. I met up with my nature group this morning in Walkill, NJ where we spent several enjoyable hours hiking and enjoying nature. The wild native monarda (bee balm) is blooming in the fields right now, so it's great for butterflies and other pollinators. But it had to be this dragon today.

This is a female (noted by the paler body) and I am not sure what is dangling from her behind. They don't oviposit away from water, so she's not depositing eggs. And, frankly, that does look a bit like a tiny spider. But I'll let you make up your own stories for this...

I posted 8 shots on Flickr, starting HERE and including two non-critter shots! A walk on the wild side for me... The Juniper Hairstreak butterflies just starting their second flight of the season right now so I was able to get some decent shots of one of them - beautiful little butterflies, about the size of an American Quarter. Back at home, the hummingbird and snowberry clearwing moths were swarming the garden so I took some shots of them too, one posted on Flickr.

It's sticky again today - the temp is below 90 F, but the humidity is very high so it's really not very pleasant to be out for long.

Thanks for the lovely comments, hearts and stars on yesterdays' hummer in the butterfly bush! I will try to show a little restraint and not blip hummers every day...

xxoo
Debbi

PS: And one last shot of the day taken a few minutes ago in the garden - a rather massive and pissed off spider, so don't look if you don't like angry arachnids