Widow Skimmer Dragonfly and Monarch Butterfly

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Andrew Lamberson

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The below is a new Dragonfly ID for me, a Widow Skimmer. I'm not sure why the bug has such a unique reflection on its wing. As he moved, the pattern would show up and disappear. He obviously has his back to the setting sun, and there was a lot of smoke in the air from the Canadian forest fires.
The image was taken with a D500 and the Nikon 200-500mm zoom. 500mm at f/8 1/500 sec ISO 640.
Widow Skimmer-9636.jpg
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The prairie restorations in the Trempealeau National Wildlife area are a really amazing source of native wildflowers and Monarch butterflies. The area contains all 12 native species of milkweed with large groups of Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) throughout the many prairie restoration areas. Milkweed is extremely important for Monarch butterflies for food and it is where they lay their eggs and the large caterpillars feed. This Monarch is feeding on some Whorled Milkweed (Asclepias verticillata) a favorite of all pollinators including Hummingbirds.

Monarch Butterfly-9394.jpg
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I like the angles that you caught of all the wings of the dragonfly. And you finally found a Monarch that would hold still for you. Nice shot!

Would love to see that prairie restoration there sometime.
 
They have a number of them on the main road in, and then some really large ones on both the East and West car/bike/walk loops. They burnt a pretty large area this spring on the West loop, and the Big Bluestem has gone crazy! The areas that were burned a few years ago are full of an amazing variety of wildflowers.
 
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