Every year it's the same story – the migrant hawker (Aeshna mixta) dragonflies arrive in July hunting en masse, but refuse to land for even a moment, making photos nigh on impossible 🤷♂️
And then around the start of August, they start perching & allow me to get very close 👁
So here's a male that was making the most of the post-rain sunshine this evening 🙂👍
If you're a regular viewer, you won't be surprised to learn that I have a bit of an obsession with photographing the dragonflies in our garden 🐲🪰
Every picture is different & often challenging to capture, but sometimes true magic happens 🧙♂️
For me, this is one of those photos, a female common darter (Sympetrum striolatum) caught in the light & with just the right amount of depth of focus 🙂
This summer’s dragonflies are really showing their age by now 👵
This female vagrant darter (Sympetrum vulgatum) has taken on a much darker brown colouration, replacing her younger yellows, while her male counterparts are firebrick red – if only I could persuade one to pose for me 🤷♂️
Bit surprised to see, well, hear this blue emperor dragonfly (Anax imperator) clattering around in our unfortunate car port glass roof trap today – normally they’re only around earlier in the season 🧐
Anyway, managed to catch it the filthy (sorry) glass I keep outside for this purpose & take a quick phone picture – now it’s freely patrolling the neighbourhood again 🙂👍
Still very few dragonflies in the garden this summer, but another regular friend turned up today: a female black-tailed skimmer (Orthetrum cancellatum).
There's an emperor dragonfly out there too, leading me a merry chase as it flits around hunting.
Seeing a lot more #dragonflies stopping in the garden around the house these days. Best I can determine this one is a Blue Dasher (Pachydiplax longipennis) a member of the Skimmer family.
I rarely upload video here for all the well-known reasons 😬
I'm making an exception today though, as few things make me happier than seeing a squadron of ten or more dragonflies patrolling our garden, as they were this morning 🐲🪰
Very likely migrant hawkers (Aeshna mixta) as they do this every summer, but I'll try & get a close-up photo in the coming days 📷
Small wildlife seen on a hike near a stream. The main trail mostly ran along the chaparral-covered hillside just outside the riparian zone, but a few branches went down through the trees to the stream.
The lizard was well-camouflaged as it skittered around the tree trunk, in contrast to the two #dragonflies (a vivid blue dancer and a flame skimmer -- you can probably guess which is which!) There were quite a few small blue dancers (like half this length!) flying around the trail uphill from the stream bed. This one was resting on a wooden beam placed across the stream as a bridge. Finally, a checkered white #butterfly in front of the invasive mustard plants that were all over the lower parts of the chaparral.
A beautiful faux stained glass dragonfly flitting in the grasses and cattails of a wetlands pond. These little creatures are also called Mosquito Hawks because they love to feast on those pesky mosquitos. Hope you enjoy this latest creation.
Visitors to the prairie garden: An eastern pondhawk dragonfly, an American snout butterfly, a question mark butterfly and an eastern tiger swallowtail butterfly. #butterflies#dragonflies#Lepidoptera#Odonata