UPDATE: Some experts have looked at the photos that Walter took of and it appears that the dragonfly in the first photo (and possibly all of the ones in this posting) is a Splendid Clubtail (Gomphurus lineatifrons), a new species for me. The differences between the two species are subtle enough that I am definitely relying on the expertise of others in making this identification.
I spent most of this past Tuesday exploring wild areas in Fairfax County, Virginia, hunting for dragonflies with my friend and fellow dragonfly enthusiast Walter Sanford. It is still a little early for many species, so we had to work really hard for each one that we were able to find. I was really excited when we spotted several Cobra Clubtail dragonflies (Gomphorus vastus) during the day, all of which turned out to be females.
As you can see from these photos, the Cobra Clubtails were hanging vertically with their abdomens pointing downwards, which made them hard to spot when they landed in the abundant green vegetation. In one nearby location, there is an annual mass emergence of Cobra Clubtails, with dozens emerging at the same time. We made a brief stop there, hoping to see more Cobra Clubtails, but learned from employees there that the Cobra Clubtails have not yet arrived this year—we may make another try sometime fairly soon.
If you would like to see Walter’s posting on our adventures with the Cobra Clubtails, click on this link to his blog.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Nice series of dragonfly images Mike! Enjoyed seeing them!
Thanks, Reed. Eventually I will get some dragonflies to perch higher in vegetation so that I can get a cleaner background–most of the early emerging ones seem to perch low to the ground.
[…] Cobra Clubtail dragonflies – a blog post by Michael Powell featuring the same female shown in this post. […]
[…] Cobra Clubtail dragonflies – a blog post by Michael Powell […]
Lovely! We stopped by the side of a road this weekend. Below us was a big puddle with a female wood duck and her goslings. They were so busy I had difficulty counting them. Periodically a LARGE black dragonfly would zoom past. Was never close enough to get a photo. But sure reminded me of you and Walter!
Thanks for thinking of me, Molly. We never seem to get enough of dragonflies, especially the more unusual ones that are harder to find.
[…] of you know that I love to photograph dragonflies. In a recent posting, I thought I was featuring photos of a Cobra Clubtail dragonfly, but it turns out that it was a […]
Love dragonflies and love all of these images you captured and are sharing! And love that you happen to have a dragonfly enthusiast friend on hand. 🙂 I usually leave discouraged when I encounter dragonflies and am not able to capture them through the lens.
Thanks, Laura. Most of the time I like to go out with my camera on my own. I recognize, though, that there are advantages to shooting with someone else and will sometimes go out with my friend Walter. When we are together, one of us will often spook a dragonfly and the second is able to see where it has flown and hopefully perched. Walter is even more of a dragonfly “geek” than I am. He used to be a science teacher and I majored in French literature, so our backgrounds are quite different, Sometime we will write complementary blog postings after our outings and it is always fascinating to see how those postings and our images reflect our individual perspectives. As for dragonfly photos, it often takes patience and a bit of luck to get decent shots. Sometimes my shots lull people into thinking that the dragonflies are big and easy to photograph, when the truth is that often they are tiny and very skittish.