Disappointment

Disappointed in the cool front. Last night the temperature was a few degrees cooler, but the high today was 100° again, a few degrees warmer than yesterday before the "cool front" arrived. And not a drop of rain. The wildlife pond has been dried up for several days now.

Mostly disappointed in myself. I photographed a dragonfly that looked interesting, though I couldn't say why exactly. My thought processes went something like, "It's either a Swift Setwing or a Black Setwing. It's hanging like a Great Spreadwing, or that other dragonfly, whose name I forget. Gotta ask Kelly if setwings hang like that." So I snapped a few photos and moved on. When I downloaded the photos I looked in the book at setwings to see which had that brownish color on the wing bases. None of the setwings looked like this dragonfly, so I started turning every page looking for something that did. Came across the Pale-faced Clubskimmer. Duh! So stupid that I didn't recognize it. And I had so bad wanted another chance to photograph one from the side. Blew it! And if that's not bad enough I knew and had been told to always photograph from as many angles as possible. In my mind the clubskimmer looked totally distinct from other odes and this one didn't. (See post of Aug 1 for my lifer of that species.) Both the Aug 1st one and this one are females, but I don't think they're the same individual. Since they're rarely seen perched, chances of me getting another chance at it are slim I think.

I had thought it was something like this species, Black Setwing (taken at Lajitas Aug 10th)

Later, when I went back out to look for the clubtail, I finally got a decent shot at a Black Saddlebags. That is a common species at CMO but I never could get a suitable photo of one. This one is a female.

And on the bright side, this morning a lovely group of birders visited the oasis. It's great people like them that make all the hard work I do here so worth while.