Seasons are starting to change for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere as summer gradually releases its hold on us. Already the children in my area have returned to school and the weather is cooling off a bit.
Some of the summer dragonfly species are starting to disappear or decrease in numbers. Fortunately, some new species appear late in the season to take their places, like this handsome male Russet-tipped Clubtail dragonfly (Stylurus plagiatus) that I spotted yesterday at Jackson Miles Abbott Wetland Refuge.
Russet-tipped Clubtails are a late season species and are seen most often in August and September. Unlike many of the dragonflies that I see regularly that seem to prefer pole-like perches or perch flat on the ground, Russet-tipped Clubtails like to hang from the leaves of vegetation at an angle or almost vertically—members of the genus Stylurus are sometimes called “Hanging Clubtails.”
I am not quite ready to welcome “autumn,” but there are signs everywhere that the seasons are inexorably changing. Autumn is probably my favorite season of the year, but I am still holding on to the summer.
UPDATE: As a kind of experiment I decided to do a little video version of this posting that I put on my YouTube channel. What do you think?
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Lovely
Thanks, Tricia. I tend to see this species only a couple of times each year, so each sighting is really special.
Your talk of seasons combined with the colour palette of this photo and the jewel like nature of the dragonfly made me think of Christmas and decorations on a tree. Now I am imagining a Christmas tree decorated with (fake, of course) dragonflies and insects of all kinds.
I like the idea of dragonflies (and other insects) as ornaments. They would hang on the tree very much like the dragonfly in this posting. 🙂
Very nice Mike! Always enjoy your dragonfly images!
[…] tree where I recently photographed a Russet-tipped Clubtail—see my blog posting entitled “Russet-tipped Clubtail dragonfly.” I guess that I will be checking that tree from now on to see if lightning will strike […]