Mike Powell

On Monday I spent several hours at Jackson Miles Abbott Wetland Refuge, focusing my attention primarily on trying to capture shots of Prince Baskettail dragonflies (Epitheca cynosura) in flight. There appeared to be several of them patrolling over the waters of the small pond and I managed to find some good vantage points that gave me unobstructed views of them as they passed by.

One of the locations where I spotted a Prince Baskettail included some lily pads and I decided to try to include them in the shots to give a sense of the environment. The downside of this approach, though, was that it made it even harder to keep my camera’s focus on the dragonfly—the camera kept trying to focus on the background. I was persistent, however, and managed to get a few good shots, as you can see in the first three images below.

I took the final image at a different spot where there were no lily pads. This shot is undoubtedly the sharpest one of today’s photos. Although you can’t see much of the environment in the image, the ripples in the water do add some visual interest.

I couldn’t help but notice that the dragonfly in the final photo had its legs in a lower position than normally—generally a Prince Baskettail flies with its legs held tightly against its thorax to present the most aerodynamic profile. I know that some dragonfly species catch prey on the fly with their legs extended like a basket and wonder if that was what this dragonfly was attempting to do.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.