Dragonflies

After seeing some of the photos of Dragonflies and Damselflies, I have been captivated with their beauty. I am amazed by the colors, and their delicate lacey wings.

I never knew there were Damselflies. If my understanding is right, the Damsels fold their wings along side their bodies when resting and the Dragonflies have them spread out, as in these photos. There may be many other differences, I’ll learn them as I go.

I remember them as “darning needles”. If we were not quiet…they’d sew our mouths shut. I have no memory of either my Mom or Dad telling us that…It’s like one of those things kids just know. We did some camping with our parents and perhaps that was one of those campfire stories used to get us to go to bed and be quiet.

While in Silver Glen Springs, off of Lake George, which is one of the lakes along the St Johns River, we were in the dingy( small inflatable rubber raft) trying to get photos of the River Otters and anything else I could find interesting. Now this is all great fun for me…but I do have to appreciate the boredom that must go along with it for my husband. After all, I’m whispering..”keep me straight” “row with the right oar” “no..the left”..”sit still..don’t rock the boat”..”don’t let the dog bark”… And we are chasing a Dragonfly around. One that is not the least bit interested in sitting still so I can snap a picture. My Kodak Z712 IS Easy Share is a nice little camera..but definitely not up to par for the kind of photos I want to take of this beautiful little insect. Now..I’ve seen nice photos of it so I have an idea how pretty it is, but at this point it’s just a bug to Jim. This is the best I could do. I figure I’d better post them or he’d figure his time had been wasted.

After doing some checking on the web, I found a site, http://www.cirrusimage.com/ that had a picture similar to mine , so I am guessing this is a male Eastern Pond Hawk. If I am wrong, please tell me. I am just learning. If you are as amazed, as I was, at how beautiful they are, go to the site above and see what you’ve been missing all these years as they zipped past.

Another guess. female Eastern Pond Hawk

By the time we spotted this one Jim was starting to get into it and was chasing this one around. Unfortunately it stuck to the plants and wouldn’t come down for a closer shot.

At home, in the evening when the mosquitoes are starting to come out…the “helicopters” (another unscientific term) start dashing around. I’ll be out there chasing them too. Don’t know what they are yet, but I’ll find out. I even saw a blue one.