During a recent dragonfly hunting trip with my friend and fellow dragonfly enthusiast Walter Sanford, I was thrilled when we stumbled upon several Springtime Darner dragonflies (Basiaeschna janata). As their name suggests, they are in flight early in the dragonfly season and are gone well before many of the summer dragonfly species arrive.
I first spotted one flying low over the vegetation in an overgrown field. It dropped down into the vegetation, but I was fortunately to be able to find where it was perched. As you can see in the first photo, Springtime Darners perch vertically, making it hard to see them amid all of the nearby stalks and stems. The female in the first photo was relatively cooperative and I was able to position myself well enough to have most of her body in focus. I encourage you to click on the image to see all of the wonderful details and colors of this beautiful dragonfly.
Although we had several more encounters with Springtimes Darners, all of those individuals were very skittish and it was tough to get any good shots. I included the second shot below because it shows really well the body of a male Springtime Darner, although the head is a bit out of focus because of the way he was perched.
Walter also did a blog posting on our encounter with these beautiful dragonflies. Be sure to check it out at this link and you will find more information about this dragonfly species and his photos and “take” on our dragonfly adventure.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Awesome photos! Love the content. Greetings from London.
Thanks. As you can probably tell now, I love photographing dragonflies and their season is just now starting.
Definitely. I absolutely love dragonflies too! Unfortunately I don’t get them on my pond so much anymore because I think the water quality has dropped for the nymphs but I might clear it out this Summer and try get them back.
Awesome content. I always love your pictures Mike!
Wow what cool creatures and the focus is amazing!
Isn’t that pattern terrific?
Blue Rock Horses Frederick County, Virginia bluerockhorses.com
Beautiful dragonfly images Mike! They are interesting dragonflies! Love their coloring!
[…] “Springtime Darner dragonflies” features photos of the same subject shot by Michael Powell: Mike used a DSLR camera, macro lens, and no flash to take his photos; I used a mirrorless superzoom “bridge” camera and an external flash unit to take mine. […]
What a handsome couple! Nice to see darners again. I see lake darners at the cabin fairly frequently. They’re one of the larger ones–not quite as large as the ubiquitous dragonhunters, but still very impressive. Here’s one: https://krikitarts.wordpress.com/2015/08/13/big-bog-slog-blog-no-dog/
I have always found darners to be colorful and impressive and your Lake Darner is no exception. I checked the range map and it looks like this is a northern species. I was fascinated by your description of the boardwalk through the bog. It definitely sounds like my kind of place, though it does pose some challenges with the sensitivity of the habitat, which forces you to stay on the boardwalk.
A pretty specimen, Mike. The second image is particularly nice with that perch of the looped piece of grass.