Dragonfly Weekend

Last weekend started early for me, as our company has ‘summer hours’ – meaning that assuming you put in your time, you get out of the office at 3 p.m. on Fridays between Memorial and Labor days. I happen to think it’s a great idea, and enthusiastically try to support it. I say ‘try’ because I’ve yet to actually leave at 3 – my record, so far, is 3:30 because I’m a sucker and things come up at 2:55 all the time. 🙂

Damsel, identify yourself!

When I got home, I really needed to get out and take some pictures. I’d been fairly cooped up all week at work, and needed some outside time. Shari wasn’t feeling well, so I ran out to some local ponds in search of dragonflies. The hunt wasn’t entirely successful as most of the local ponds had little more than Common Whitetails running around, although I did see some cool damselflies, including my first Citrine Forktail.

The next day, I convinced Shari that we really needed to get out for at least a little while to do some photography, and she agreed. We left at about 9 a.m. to go back to Palmyra Cove and their two new ponds near the entrance. It was a cornucopia of odonata, if not an easy place to get shots (a lot of those dragons just wouldn’t stop moving!). The list from the morning:

  • Great Blue Skimmer ^
  • Eastern Pondhawk ^
  • Black Saddlebags
  • Carolina Saddlebags ^
  • Common Green Darner
  • Blue Dasher
  • Unknown Dragonfly with Yellow-and-Black body and black wings *
  • Common Whitetail
  • Twelve-spotted Skimmer ^
  • Common Spreadwing *
  • Spotted Spreadwing* (?)
  • Citrine Forktail *
  • Eastern Forktail
  • Fragile Forktail ^
  • Familiar Bluet ^
  • * new species for me
  • ^ 1st of year

We didn’t last long out there, though – it was bloody hot and humid, and we quickly evacuated, and tried again later that evening. Our success wasn’t much better in the evening – still a lot of dragons and damsels, but the light wasn’t cooperating as much and the bugs were being even less cooperative. But still, it was fun to get out with my wife and sit around the pond with BIG cameras.

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3 Responses to “Dragonfly Weekend

  • Wow, I didn’t know there WERE that many kinds of dragonflies. Very impressive.

    Sarah and I haven’t done much of anything photography-wise for a while. We need to get out there soon and shoot!

  • Little Van loves dragonflies, he has some weird ability to get them to land on him – got any explanation for that?

  • I really need to get out and look for dragonflies! We have a Dragonfly Atlas workshop on Saturday, so dragonfly pictures from me soon!

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