I endlessly tried to track several Wandering Glider dragonflies (Pantala flavescens) as they flew back and forth over a field at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge last Thursday and was thrilled when one of them finally landed some nearby vegetation, allowing me to capture this image.
Wandering Gliders, also known as Globe Skimmers or Globe Wanderers, are considered to be the most widespread dragonfly species on the earth, with a good population on every continent except Antartica, although they rare in Europe. According to Wikipedia, Wandering Gliders “make an annual multigenerational journey of some 11,200 miles (18,000 km); to complete the migration, individual Wandering Gliders fly more than 3,730 miles (6,000 km)—one of the farthest known migrations of all insect species.”
This modest image was technically quite challenging to capture. The vegetation in this field was dense and the autofocus on my camera kept getting confused by the stalks of vegetation, so I had to resort to manual focusing. I was reluctant to move about very much for fear of rippling the vegetation and disturbing the dragonfly and therefore had to crouch in an awkward position close to the ground. It is certainly not an award-worthy photo, but I am thrilled whenever I manage to get a decent shot of a dragonfly species that rarely perches.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Way to go.
Thanks, kenne.
Nice Mike! The dragonflies this year by us were very limited compared to other years! Nice to see your dragonfly images!