Dragonflies

Yesterday, I updated my wild flower web site. Last week was amazing with 168 different species of wild flowers in bloom. I think that might be an all time record for one week and it is certainly the record for the year.

Meanwhile, last week I had the opportunity to go out with some dragonfly hunters.



We were only out for about two hours but they managed to capture and identify 8 species of damselflies and dragonflies:



This is a damselfly that likes to stay low in damp grasses.
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This meadowhawk dragonfly may be far from water but will return to ponds, marshes, bogs, and streams. It has been known to land on light colour clothing on cool days according to the Stokes Beginner's Guide to Dragonflies.
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I read that this dragonfly migrates along the Atlantic Coast.
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This damselfly has a very long, slender abdomen.
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Meadowhawks are very difficult to sort out for identification according to Stokes.
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We see this dragonfly more than any others at the ponds on our property.
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This was a small dragonfly that we could not capture except on the camera. It spent all it's time on this leaf or flying over the stream well away from the shore.
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This was the last damselfly of the morning. OK, we missed lunch and it was afternoon but we had planned on stopping by noon. Sometimes the clock hands spin faster than others.

P.S.
Pablo said... You forgot to include the line,
"No flies were harmed in the making of this post."
4:29 PM, July 27, 2005

Sorry Pablo, OK here goes...No flies were harmed in the making of this post. Not only that, for you who are not dragon/damselfly hunters, holding a damsel/dragonfly by its wings, carefully, will not damage it. I wish I could say the same for butterflies but they are much more fragile. We did not handle any butterflies.

Thanks, Pablo, for the reminder!