Discovery Journal

Tonight a new species of damselfly was spotted in our backyard gardens. This one is a Great Spreadwing.

More dragonflies today at the pond and creek - some of the same seen on Saturday and some new ones to share. They sure do love a sunny day. This time, I had the telephoto lens to capture the dragonflies perched further away.

This morning, a festival of dragonfly species came out to take advantage of the morning sun and heat over at the pond and connected creek. The following are some of the species seen this morning.

A male Eastern Pondhawk was sighted along the boardwalk entrance to the park near the pond. He was moving from perch to perch along the edge of the thickets on either side of the walking path.

The gardens attract their share of damselflies. Seen today was this female Familiar Bluet, feasting on her prey. Damselflies are tricky to photograph because the auto-focus has a hard time locking onto their extremely slender body. This image was taken using manual focus.

Dragonflies and damselflies are some of the most exciting visitors to the gardens. Because their eggs are laid in or near water, they are often associated with pond and creek environments. But their diet is carnivore, and they will travel to where the food is, which means we get to see a nice variety over the course of the year in our backyard.