Another Afternoon in the 'hood

Yesterday afternoon after I got off of work, I walked down to the containment ponds at the end of my block to again try and get some pictures of those pesky dark gray day-flying tiger beetles. Upon arriving, I found a few damselflies about that allowed me to snap off 2 or 3 pictures.

After a couple of unsuccessful attempts at photographing tiger beetles, I settled for a few face-shots of a female eastern pondhawk, Erythemis simplicicollis.

I also took a few pictures of a very small green grasshopper (sp.?).

There were some leaf hoppers (?) that were hanging out on some of the tall grass stalks that kept dodging around to the other side when I tried to snap a picture, so between that and the breeze blowing the grass, I gave up. I came across a female velvet and (Pseudomethoca?), and without a portable refrigertor, I didn't bother to try and photograph it. Also fast-moving through the grass/dirt patches was a Casteaneria sp.

FINALLY, after telling myself several times "ok, one last attempt and I'm giving up", I was able to crawl right up to a tiger beetle and fire off 5 or 6 pictures that came out good.

-James