Do you ever go out to shoot photos when it is raining? It was already raining when I set out on a photo walk yesterday morning at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge and it kept raining for several hours as I sought subjects to photograph. My camera is somewhat waterproof, but my lenses are not, so I carried an umbrella. It must have been quite a sight to see me balancing my umbrella and my camera, which was attached to an extended monopod.
Dragonflies generally do not fly in the rain, but I decided to search the edge of a small pond to see if I could spot any particularly hardy specimens. As I was doing so, I caught sight of a small flicker of yellow. As I drew closer to it, I could see that it was a tiny damselfly. Now damselflies are always pretty small, but this one was even smaller than normal. Since many damselflies are a combination of black and blue, the brighter coloration of this one really made this one stand out.
It was not hard to find this damselfly in my guidebook because of its coloring. It is a Citrine Forktail damselfly (Ischnura hastata), a diminutive damselfly that is only .8-1.1 inches (20 to 27 mm) in length. I am really happy that I was able to capture so many of the details of this cool damselfly: the tiny blue eyespots; the narrow green shoulder stripes; and the mostly yellow abdomen.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 