Earlier this month I went out with my camera to Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, looking for dragonflies that appear in the autumn, such as the Autumn Meadowhawk and the Blue-faced Meadowhawk. Alas, I did not spot any of these dragonflies with bright red bodies, but I was delighted to see that this striking female Eastern Pondhawk dragonfly (Erythemis simplicicollis) was still around.
Eastern Pondhawks are quite common in my area during the summer months, but are often difficult to see, because their emerald green bodies (for the females and immature males) tend to blend in with the abundant vegetation. That vegetation is starting to die off and dry out now, so I had no trouble tracking this dragonfly in the air and seeing when it landed. Achieving sharp focus was a bit more of a challenge, because my camera tended to focus on all of the various reeds and sticks in the background—I ended up shifting to manual focus to capture this image.
We are in a bit of a cloudy and rainy period right now, but I plan to go out again in the next week of so to search for the remaining dragonflies, many of which will be gone by the end of October.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
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