Here’s the lady.
Twelve-spotted Lady Beetle, a native
And these are the dragons.
Widow Skimmer, male
Widow Skimmer, female
Eastern Pondhawk, female
Common Whitetail, female
Arrowhead Spiketail (I think)
These photos were taken yesterday morning in the garden and meadow. I’m just learning to recognize our local dragonflies, but wish I had a better reference book. I’m using Dragonflies Through Binoculars, but find that many of the photographs aren’t detailed enough to just flip through the book trying to match a photo with a dragonfly I’ve seen. If you know of a good photo reference, please let me know. If it’s a regional reference that would be even better.
I wrote earlier that I was going to do a post about the meadow wildflowers, and I did get as far as taking the photographs but haven’t edited and uploaded. And the meadow looks different now than it did two weeks ago. Maybe I’ll save that post for some snowy winter day when I need reminding that there are such things as sunny summer meadows.
We have all of those except the last one. It was big, wasn’t it? I was thinking about getting that book. I am using a beginner’s guide fromStokes. It is good, but doesn’t have everything. Sometimes, I just type in a description in Google and the right dragon/damselfly comes up. There are several good sites to use for identification, but it takes time.
Good luck dragon hunting!
The Arrowhead Spiketail IS big, but there’s an even bigger dragonfly that zips around the garden but never seems to stop so I can get a good look at it. I sure wish I knew what that one is.
I think I do need a beginner book – something that’s going to show me just the most common species. But I hadn’t thought of Googling the description. I’ll give that a try next time.
I have seen so many dragonflies in the past few days. I should really start paying attention – instead of diving for cover.
🙂
They are startling when they zip past. I think the wings are beautiful – the body not so much.