That’s what I asked for at the end of my last post, a more natural setting for the Powdered Dancer in the photo. Well, a few short hours after publishing that post, that wish was to be granted.
My sister Lori and I drove down to the Cedar Spring access on the Current River, threw the kayaks on the water and paddled across and slightly downstream to a very cool area at the head of a gravel bar. Behind the gravel bar lies the remnant of an old river channel—the water is about three feet at the deepest, has no discernible current and is chock full of coontail (Ceratophyllum demersum)and other aquatic vegetation. It’s basically fish heaven. A dense stand of American Water-willow (Justicia americana) blankets the gravel bar itself, which acts as a barrier protecting the slack water behind it from the many, many power boat wakes that hammer the area on a typical weekend.
Lori is the local high school science teacher, school is starting in a couple of weeks and we were looking for a few fish to populate her aquariums. Despite being very late in the evening (after 5:00 p.m.), it was still really hot, so much so that I kept overheating despite being crotch deep in the water and had to repeatedly submerge myself to cool off.
We tried first with dip nets, catching only a few tiny minnows, then switched to a 20’ seine. We quickly learned that we suck at using a seine. Our total catch was exactly one fish (plus plenty of weeds) and we managed to let it get out of the net before either of us could get to it. I’m not even sure of what it was, though I think it was a Bleeding Shiner.
I did get to see a small (6-8”) Chain Pickerel (Esox niger) skulking in the vegetation, holding what looked to be a darter of some kind, cross-ways in his mouth. He looked like a dog carrying a bone and I figure he had just caught the fish or he would have already swallowed it, I tried to get close enough for a photo, but pickerel in general are extremely wary and this one was no exception, quickly disappearing into the cover of the weeds.
But I digress. I was talking about Powdered Dancers and the possibility of photographing one that wasn’t on my kayak. Well, the water-willow was alive with damselflies and a few dragons to boot. There were the aforementioned Powdered Dancers, which were everywhere it seemed, plus plenty of American Rubyspots and individuals of at least two species of very small damsels that I didn’t manage to identify.
The Dancers were very skittish, most of them flying off before I ever got close and I only managed a few shots. This was the best of the bunch:
The background still leaves a lot to be desired, but it’s better than sitting on a kayak. Definitely more natural. Here’s another shot, backed out a bit and without the foggy spot below the damsel (my camera is waterproof, but it’s a impossible to keep water droplets and fog off of the lens cover).
I should have tried for more shots of the Dancers, but as I always do when I run into Rubyspots, I became enthralled and spent most of my time chasing them. They were much more cooperative than the Dancers and I ended up with quite a few shots, though I’m only going to post a few, don’t worry!
The same shot, but cropped a bit closer:
This shot was back lit pretty badly, but I still liked it, especially with the cloud reflections on the water.
Wading, pulling a seine and walking on gravel, particularly as hot as it was, will wear you out. The fact that we’re both in our forties (perilously close to fifty in my case) probably didn’t help and we were soon paddling back to the landing. Without any fish. But we’re planning to try again next Sunday, though probably somewhere else. And as Lori said as we were paddling back across the river, “no time spent chasing critters is ever wasted.” You’d think we were related or something.