We have all seen them where we paddle here in the south. I suspect in the rest of the country too. There are three different species in the photos. at least two more were present but I didn’t get a good photo of them.
Anole caught a large Fly and my attention
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In that case you might enjoy their dance to own the perfect perch that took place. Each jockeying to be king of the mountain…er…stick!
These two are laying eggs. Each time they go down the female touches her abdomen to the water’s surface she lays an egg. The male clasps the female just behind head and they fly in tandem. Insects amaze me!
Nice. I’ve had dragonflies perch on the bow deck of my canoe a few times while I’m paddling; that’s always a treat. Are the little blue ones damselflies? Or maybe damselflies are even smaller? One time I was napping in my Swift Osprey tied off to a dead tree in a quiet area with lots of lilypads and when I woke up the gunwales of my canoe were covered in blue damselflies.
Hi Tom, a dragonfly holds its wings out horizontally and are generally larger than damselflies which hold their wings together over there back. They both come in many colors.
If someday when you’re stopped for a shore lunch or such and you see a dragonfly perched nearby, take a bit of grass - a very small bit - and flick it out in front of the dragon fly. They’ll hit it like a northern hits a minnow. Makes one glad not to be a flying insect - which is a cause for gratitude that wouldn’t occur to most of us unless we’d seen a dragonfly attack a bit of grass.
A dragonfly on the bow is good luck.
Dragonfly larvae in an aquarium full of fish fry, not so much.
I’ve always enjoyed both riding along on my boat.
String lake is covered with Lilly pads and the dragonflies are very busy . Good thing because the skeeters are out.
Here are the species names for those I have photos of, and couple I don’t have at hand.
Dragonhunter are the largest clubtail dragonfly in the U.S. that eats other dragonflies.
Great Blue Skimmer female these are the largest U.S. Skimmers.
Eastern Pondhawk male (note the two white cerci at the end of the abdomen) the female looks enterally different being primally green.
Blue Dashers, the most common ones at the pond. Note the black tip of the abdomen and yellow/amber color at the base of the wings.
Twelve Spotted Skimmer a pair laying eggs in the water.
Widow Skimmer male the female has mostly clear wings. it’s the one with the white and dark brown wings.
There are two more commonly seen at the pond they are the Common Whitetail and the Eastern Amberwing.
That’s why I majored in mammalogy, not bugology. Too many species to remember.
Great photos.
Great pictures all. We called them snake doctors. No idea why.
Wow, nice
Wow! She’s very talented!
Reminds me of a big male Green Darner (females are green, males blue) with much prettier wings. Fantastic!
