Tanana River Walk: Dragonfly, Trees, and Clouds (publ. 2023-08-02)

I have quite a few things to write about, and photos to upload, but I haven't had that time to do it lately. Mostly the only free time I have right now is during my lunch break. But the weather has been too beautiful lately for me to want to stay inside and write, so instead I continue to go on walks and collect photos. But I can't go outside today, so here are a few photos from the collection.

Yesterday I went on another walk along the Tanana River. Quite unexpectedly, I was able to get these great photos of a dragonfly:

dragonfly photo A

dragonfly photo B

dragonfly photo C

Normally dragonflies are much too fast and skittish for me to get a close-up photo, but this one appeared to be sleeping, or for some other reason heedless of my presence. The craftmanship and complexity of this amazing machine is stunning, especially if you've ever done a little research into dragonfly flight. It is another showcase of the Creator's handiwork.

Lately I've been trying to work more on quick identification of different trees. Here is a tamarack tree:

tamarack photo A

tamarack photo B

I've gotten to where I can recognize the common ones fairly easily. Paper birch and spruce are very easy, as well as tamarack. Alder is not too difficult. It can be a little hard to distinquish between balsam poplar and quaking aspen, from a distance, but a close-up inspection usually makes it clear. Willows are rather confusing, because there are so many of them, with so much variety.

I am not sure about this tree:

mystery tree photo A

mystery tree photo B

Those look like Alder leaves, but otherwise it doesn't look like the Thin Leaf Alder trees I've seen in the area.

The clouds that day were majestic and imposing. Here are some photos, though the effect is not quite the same as when there in person: