Dragonflies are one of my favorite subjects to photograph and each spring I eagerly await their reappearance. Yesterday I captured my first image of one this season, a beautiful Common Green Darner (Anax junius) that I spotted at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge.
Common Green Darners are a migratory species and the ones that we see in early spring, like the one in the photograph, probably flew here from somewhere further south. Once they arrive, they have a series of tasks to accomplish—they mate, lay eggs, and die. The next generation of Green Darners will emerge in a few months and fly south in the autumn. That generation will die in the south and the following generation will fly north in the spring.
What an amazing life cycle!
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
That’s a beautiful shade of blue.
The colors of this dragonfly are so bright and vivid–I love the combination of green and blue.
Nice Mike, in Sept 1998 it even appeared in s/w UK after a hurricane!
Wow. The whole concept of long distance dragonfly migrations just boggles my mind. That is especially the case with the Wandering Glider, which apparently has been known to migrate distances of up to 4000 miles.
Springtime in blogVille – Mike has a dragonfly 🙂
I’m not quite ready to give up on birds, but you may have noticed that insects have crept (or flown) into the pages of my blog again.
The word “common” does not do justice to this beautiful dragonfly does it? Terrific photo! Benjamin will love seeing this on Monday. Thank-you, Mr. Mike!!
Nice Mike! Always fun to photograph Dragonflies!
And it wore my favorite color! I haven’t seen one here yet but the spring peepers are chirping away.
I have yet to see my first this year! Dragonflies and damselflies are my favorite subjects too.