common_nature | Entries tagged with animal: damselfly

Taken North Shropshire June 2014 - This is a male Banded Demoiselle I found in my garden, first time I've ever seen one in the garden. They are a member of the Damselfly species, but in flight they seem to flutter somewhat and are very eye catching.

( Large photo under here )

spiralsheep

One close-up photo of a banded demoiselle damselfly taken in Worcester next to the River Severn during June, at my journal and at flickr (links because I don't know how com members feel about images of insects):

http://spiralsheep.dreamwidth.org/395282.html

http://www.flickr.com/photos/spiralsheep/7550670680/in/photostream

holyschist

It's pretty much the tail end of the dragonfly and damselfly season here in Colorado, but I'm glad I thought to seriously check the creek behind my apartment. There are a bunch of dragonflies--meadowhawks, darners, and probably some skimmers--that I haven't been able to get a good look at, much less photographs of, but the Great Spreadwings (Archilestes grandis) are very cooperative. I'm still getting the hang of photographing damselflies (their eyes are more difficult to focus on than big dragonfly eyes), and still wishing I had a macro lens, but until then, at least the Great Spreadwing is pretty big and easy to photograph with a long lens.

Here's a male:

( 1 photo below the cut )

Five more photos at my journal, including females and possibly an immature male.

I really need to learn to net and handle odonates so I can identify them better--and take pictures of some of the trickier species.