Ecosystem of Mendon Ponds

With Amy still a bit hobbled by her pickle ball injury, Doug joined me on a mid-day hike around Quaker Pond in Mendon Ponds Park.  This location had already been covered in one of my earlier blogs but I wanted to return for another attempt at some good dragonfly pictures.  The trip last summer was shortly after obtaining my macro lens and since then I purchased the D750 camera and Amy bought me a flash system for macro photography.  I took it all with me plus my (relatively) new 24-70 zoom on the 4 mile hike around the pond.

The day was pleasant for the most part considering the morning started out with rain and I had begun to wonder if I'd get any outdoor photography in for the week.  At the south end of the pond there is a small foot bridge and the area opens up and offers a full view of the marshy pond.   Before swapping my 24-70 zoom lens for the 105mm macro for the remainder of the hike, I took a series of shots to create a panoramic of the pond.  For my photography friends, I used the panoramic stitching capability added to Lightroom 6 to create the image from the 7 frames shot hand held in the portrait orientation at 36 mm focal length.

It is this area where plenty of dragonflies can be seen but they tend to spend more time over the water and on the plant life in the water and never get close enough to shore for a good picture.   We did manage a few reasonable shots before moving on. 

Once we were back in the wood lined path bordering the pond we came upon a couple of dragonflies that appear to be enjoying each others company.  I took several pictures of this scene and as I tried to move for a different angle they flew off and did so without disengaging.  Pretty amazing.  I figured one of these shots was sure to be my top billing for the week.  That was before I started looking closely at the rest of my pictures.

I really enjoy trying to get a good shot of bees or other insects working around flowers and when we came across a rather large bee working a flower, I couldn't pass it up.  By this time I had my macro lens on and the flash unit attached so I turned the flashes on and took a half dozen shots or so before moving on.  I never noticed the little ants that were also on this flower. 

I'm not sure this ant is really attempting to defend his territory from the much larger bee that is coming in for a landing, but it sure looks that way and makes for an interesting story and as such gets top billing for the week.

The rest of the pictures in the post were ones I found interesting and thought you might enjoy seeing. 

Some were taken with the flash and others were not.  The small yellow flowers with the nice defocused background was originally shot at f/20 (a setting for large depth of field on the macro shots) and subsequently retaken at f/3.0 for a much improved photo.  The little white flower with banana shaped stamens was interesting because I don't recollect ever seeing one before.  The blossoms are about the size of a nickel.  Does anyone know what those are?