Dragonflies perch in a lot of different ways. Some perch at the top of vegetation, some perch in the middle, and some, like this Unicorn Clubtail dragonfly (Arigomphus villosipes) like to perch low to the ground or, in this case, to the surface of the water. I don’t see Unicorn Clubtails very often, so I was excited to see this one on Tuesday at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge in a marshy pond filled with lily pads.
I had two cameras with me when I encountered the dragonfly. The second image below shows the view from my DSLR with a 180mm macro lens. I really like the way that the shot gives you a sense of the environment and when I was processing the image I paid as much attention to the surroundings as I did to the dragonfly.
My Canon SX50 let me zoom in a lot closer to the dragonfly, as you can see in the first shot, and captured more details of the dragonfly. I like aspects of both images and think that together they provided complementary views of this wonderful dragonfly. You can’t really see it in these shots, but members of this species have a little protrusion in between their eyes, which prompted someone to name them “unicorns.”
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
So unicorns do exist, after all. The perching behaviors are interesting. I finally figured out why I see dragonflies flying at the marinas, while the damselflies always are lower, hanging around dock steps or railings. That’s apparently a difference in feeding behavior.
I don’t think I’ve seen a clubtail yet. It’s easy to see how they got their name.
The Unicorn Clubtail has a relatively small “club”–there are some species that have really big “clubs.” Most of the dragonflies that you probably see are of the skimmer family rather than the clubtail family. Different families have different behaviors. For example, members of the darner family tend to hang vertically rather than perch horizontally. It’s really fascinating for me to learn about all of this and to observe the different behaviors.
You always get such great detail. Very nice.
Thanks, Ted. I try to be as stealthy as I can. Since I do a lot of my dragonfly shooting with a fixed focal length 180mm lens, I have to do most of my zooming with my feet.
I saw 3 dragonflies moving through the meadow as I left church last night. Cannot see any without thinking of you and praying for you, too!