NikonGear'23

Images => Nature, Flora, Fauna & Landscapes => Topic started by: pluton on July 02, 2015, 06:29:37

Title: Dragonflies vs. the Flying Ants
Post by: pluton on July 02, 2015, 06:29:37

While out for a mountain bike ride in the local hills(the Santa Monica Mountains), I came upon dragonflies swarming over a small area.  This usually means there is something in that area that dragonflies like to eat.  Turns out, this was the day that many local ant colonies had selected to synchronize their big mating swarms, where winged males and winged females are pushed out of the nest to mate, then find a place for a new colony.
A view of the general area:
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/487/19346174091_fd951fa8bf_h.jpg)[/url]dragonflies -150630Z_DSF9247150615 (https://flic.kr/p/vtycxH) by kbkbfoot (https://www.flickr.com/photos/43813239@N03/), on Flickr
I went to war with the camera I had, a Fujifilm APSC unit with 14mm(very wide) lens.
The Dragonflies:
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/283/19316219846_0fd14cea37_h.jpg)[/url]dragonflies -150630ZDSCF9643150629 (https://flic.kr/p/vqUFcd) by kbkbfoot (https://www.flickr.com/photos/43813239@N03/), on Flickr
The ants, in context:
(https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/331/19154573920_b612ea29ae_h.jpg)[/url]dragonflies -150630ZDSCF9596150629 (https://flic.kr/p/vbCcuu) by kbkbfoot (https://www.flickr.com/photos/43813239@N03/), on Flickr
As close as I could get to the ants:
(https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3803/19154576450_de43de0816_h.jpg)[/url]dragonflies -150630ZDSCF9603150629 (https://flic.kr/p/vbCdf7) by kbkbfoot (https://www.flickr.com/photos/43813239@N03/), on Flickr
And, finally, twelve seconds of video:
https://youtu.be/bwY8TwxNYPQ

Title: Re: Dragonflies vs. the Flying Ants
Post by: Andrew on July 07, 2015, 21:27:01

Very interesting ride...

Title: Re: Dragonflies vs. the Flying Ants
Post by: Richard A on July 15, 2015, 19:30:07

3rd one tells the story well.