Nature sometimes saves the best for last. Many dragonflies that have kept me company through the long, hot days of summer have started to disappear. The appearance in autumn of the spectacularly colored male Blue-faced Meadowhawk dragonfly (Sympetrum ambiguum) compensates in part for this sense of loss.
I spotted this handsome dragonfly on Wednesday as I was exploring Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. I hope to be seeing this species for another month or so and also its “cousin,” the Autumn Meadowhawk, which has a similarly colored body but has brown eyes.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Nice capture!
What a dapper friend you have there, Mike, and another incredible photo. I imagine the walls of your house covered with stunning dragonfly photos.
Thanks, Jet. I do have a number of dragonfly photos on my walls, though several of them were taken by my friend and mentor Cindy Dyer. When I was justing starting, I was totally in awe of her shots of dragonflies and I had an aspirational goal to be able to shoot those kinds of images–I can definitely do that now. The most notable one on the wall is a 20″ x 30″ canvas print of a close-up image of a Blue-faced Meadowhawk, the species that I featured in today’s blog posting. It has a special place in my heart, because a matted print of that same image won second-place in a local photo contest in 2015. (See my blog posting https://michaelqpowell.com/2015/12/21/second-place-in-local-photo-competition/). Your comment, Jet, reminds me that I need to get some more images printed. 🙂
Very nice! I think all ours are probably finished for the year now, the weather is awful at the moment!
Beautiful, as is your prize winner. I must say that for some strange reason today is the day I first realized that dragonflies don’t have antennae.
Thanks, Michael. I believe that dragonflies do have really short antennae between the compound eyes. They are hard to see from most angles but I think that you can see one antenna pretty well on the right side of the close-up image that I linked and the shadow of the other one on the left hand side. https://michaelqpowell.com/2014/05/10/dragonfly-eyes-2/
I see! With eyes like that who needs antennae?
I would love to be able to see the world through those amazing compound eyes. 🙂
Phantastic shot Mike !
Wow, there are very pretty.
Wow! Beautiful, Mike!
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Wonderful, crisp shot, Mike. Love the background colors, too.
Thanks, Eliza.
I love that blue face!
The beautiful combination of red and blue makes this dragonfly really stand out, though I still have to hunt for them since they are only about an inch and a half in length.
[…] soon, but if you are impatient or curious to see what one looks like, check out this posting called Blue-faced Meadowhawk (male) from September […]