Friday, June 21, 2013

An abundance of dragonflies

A "Simply" Extra
I just came back from an interesting row.  I often see dragonflies when I'm on the water but during this evening's row they were especially active.

Eastern Amberwing dragonfly resting on a bog button

Scarlet skimmer (above and below) on more bog buttons


A beautiful Eastern pondhawk dragonfly

Atlantic Bluet Damselflies were all around!  

I'm by no means a dragonfly/damselfly expert but have tried my best to identify the ones I've seen.  If you believe I've misidentified any of these colorful winged beauties, please let me know.

Two easy ways to tell Dragonflies and a Damselflies apart:
Dragonflies rest with their wings open
Damselflies rest with their wings closed

Dragonfly eyes are on top of the head and often touch or nearly touch
Damselfly eyes are separated on the side of the face and don't touch


2 comments:

  1. I was at Lone Cabbage Fish Camp on 520 last Sunday afternoon and there were an unusual amount of dragonflies over the water. Is it mating season or something?

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    Replies
    1. they mate during the hot summer months so i guess that's why we're both seeing so many of them flying around these days

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