Plume de Ville

Form day to day.

September 2007 

4 september 

Few activities in the balcony at this moment.

They let us admire them during the summer then I present them to you.

Scarce chaser. (Libellula fulva) Odonata Anisoptera.
Me, I am a dragonfly. I hold my wings perpendicularly and not along the body as does my cousin damselfly.
My two pairs of wings are of different size.

The malescarce chaserwith the "hairy" thorax is blue and the female is brown.

Mid-August, border of a pond.

We are a couple of damselflies. Much finer and wings folded up along the body.
White-legged damselfly. (Platycnemis pennipes.) Odonata. Zygoptera.

The tibiae of the hind and medium are widened (more or less).
The male clings with its grips to the female behind the head. Its colouring can vary from clear blue to dark blue.

Mid-August, border of a pond.

 
Back to dragonflies.
Ruddy darter (Sympetrum sanguineum). Odonata. Anisoptera.
Wings spread out well at right angles to the body.

Or brought towards the head.

Mid-July, meadow.

[I was very much interested trying to identify them, from the photographs. As an amateur, it is possible that I made mistakes. Please, let me know.]

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

13 September

Still great calm in the balcony

Here, an osprey also known as seahawk, fish hawk or fish eagle. Pandion haliaetus. It is the only species of its family and genus.

Above the water, at about twenty meters, it flies slowly, carefully. It has a dark brown back and a white chest. A short tail and long, narrow wings with four long, fingerlike feathers, and a shorter fifth, give it a very distinctive appearance. Dark band on the eyes.

Predatory bird of 1.6 meters wingspan, feeds on fish only. It is a bird of 1.5 to 2 kg. Migrator, those in Europe spend the winter in Africa.

Once its prey detected, it plunges with folded wings, talons forward.

            Dip its claws.                                                                                   And takes off with its fish.

Then flies towards the shore to eat its wriggling prey.

[Etang de Hollande. Yvelines.]

Rare in the EU. Accused as alas, many predatory birds (but it is piscivorous) do be a "harmful animal", its population was very threatened, close to disappearance in France. It population grow slowly now.

Learn more about its conservation: balbuzard.lpo.fr