It’s migration time for Common Green Darner dragonflies (Anax junius) and last week one of my fellow photographers, Walter Sanford, reported a small swarm of Green Darners at my local marshland park.
I was walking in an entirely different area of the park from Walter and was surprised to see Green Darners, which are easily recognized thanks to their coloration and distinctive bullseye on their heads, flying up from the ground as I approached them. Rather than fly off into the distance, which is most often the case when I happen to disturb a dragonfly, these dragonflies moved only a short distance and came to rest again on the ground.
I don’t yet have the ability to interpret the movements of dragonflies, but it seemed to me that these Green Darners were conserving energy, as though they were resting in the midst of a long journey. I tried to be as quiet and stealthy as I could and moved closer and closer to one Green Darner perched near some green moss that was almost a perfect match for the color of the forward portion of her body. Judging from her overall coloration, I think this is probably a female.
My subject was amazingly cooperative and I was able to get shots of this beautiful dragonfly from a number of different angles. Although I normally try to have backgrounds that are must less cluttered than those in these images, I don’t find them to be too distracting here and they do help to show how well this colorful dragonfly blended in with her environment.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
A wonderful photo in every way!
Thanks. It was a wonderful moment too when I was able to take so many different shots of this beautiful dragonfly.
❤
So many shades of green 🙂
She really is a beauty and those eyes are really amazing. Excellent photos!
Nice!
These images are among the sharpest dragonfly photos you’ve posted, Mike! The eye color of this individual indicates it’s what I call a “newbie” — a little past the teneral stage and a little before the immature stage. I noticed quite a few newbies near the berm during the past week-or-so. Newbies like this one emerged locally but will migrate south as soon as they’re mature enough for the long trip.
Beautiful! She should give lessons to make-up artists.
Those colours make a fantastic camouflage. Too bad you didn’t have suit like that:)
It’s amazing the variety of camouflage patterns that can be found, but I must confess that I’ve never seen one with these particular colors. Blending in is usually a good thing, though I was shocked recently to learn that the US Navy has a blue-toned camouflage pattern. If I were swept overboard, the last thing I would want is to blend it–bright orange would be more my style.
I’ve noticed that recently emerged dragonflies are often quiescent for a few hours — a good time to get photos of them. These are excellent, crisp and bright!
Breathtakingly beautiful. Thank you for letting me have a close up view of this lovely lady.