Category Archives for dragonflies

The return of summer

I’m sure we all have our signals that summer is truly here. Now that we have a pond and waterfall in our backyard, I’ve decided that summer is heralded by dragonflies. I’m delighted that they have returned and are enjoying the plants and water as much as we are. No doubt you’ll be seeing more dragonfly photos – as long as they stop long enough for me to take them! This one is perched on the tip of a nearly-about-to-bloom obedient plant (that’s its name, honest) that we recently planted in the shallows. He looks to be the same as the first dragonfly I ever posted (still one of my favorite photos).

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Dragonfly on me!

We get a lot of dragonflies in our yard, attracted by the water (and bugs to eat, one presumes). Usually they land on plants or on the deck or not at all – but sometimes they decide to pay us a visit more personally. This little guy decided to land on the edge of my shorts (taken when it was much warmer than it is now!) and I managed to get my phone out and take his photo before he left. Quite auspicious, I am given to understand. Their wings are amazingly complex.

Blue Dragonfly on deck

Though this does not compete (in my mind) with the blue dragonfly I captured on the iris plant stalk, it’s still a great close-up. They like to hang out on the corner of our small pier over the stream and (I presume) hunt the bugs that fly under and around the bridge. This is totally fine by me. Again, taken with my phone so not as detailed as it could have been.

Gold Dragonfly

Yesterday’s photo reminded me I have a number of good photos of dragonflies I have not yet shared (though I meant to – just got distracted by frogs, you see. Perfectly understandable.). I captured this beauty while I was spending the day outside smoking pork and doing my Christmas shopping. He was polite enough to pose for a long while. This was important because again I was using my phone as camera.

Dragonfly on Water Hyacinth

I am 99% certain my mother took this photo last summer. I know it wasn’t this summer because we didn’t put in water hyacinth this year. They are a lovely flower – but they bloom for about a day and that is it. Plus, they are annuals where I live. But I admit, the dragonflies did enjoy posing on top of them! Of course, this one isn’t in bloom. Below is a photo of one fully bloomed – which you have to have good timing to get since they only last a day. Apologies for the blur; I believe this was with my phone and the lens was probably not so clean. Or, you can assume I used a nice filter for this effect.

Water Lilies

The frogs are being quite shy lately – and it appears Brave Frog may have already moved out. I went out to shoot some photos of Cave Frog (I think) and I got in only one quick snap before he dove under the water. Since I had the camera out anyway, I decided to take some photos of our water lilies. When we first had the pond and waterfall installed, I didn’t think we would put anything in it. I’m glad my husband pushed for plants (then fish…) because it makes it a lot more interesting to look at when we are outside. There are some new plants I put in this year that should be blooming soon – when they do I will post photos of those. But for now, I really love this close up of a water lily – I didn’t know the damselfly was there playing peekaboo until I transferred the photo to my computer!

As I was moving away I realized the water and sun were collaborating to make a gorgeous reflection – so I took that photo too.

Blue Dragonfly

In addition to frogs, we have fish and plants in our pond. The plants (and the water) attract lots of dragonflies, which is lovely since they eat other bugs that we don’t care for. They also sometimes pose on the ends of plants for us. While I was out taking photos of frogs, this lovely blue dragonfly decided to sit on the tip of a water iris leaf long enough for me to capture this photo. Enjoy!

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