A closer look at the green dragonfly

Click for greater clarity and considerably larger size.

Here’s a closer look at the green dragonfly that you saw in the last post and that I’ve tentatively identified as a female eastern pondhawk, Erythemis simplicicollis. In a comment on this morning’s entry I mentioned that I often take a few preliminary pictures even if I’m farther away than I’d like to be just in case the animal I’m photographing gets spooked, takes off, and doesn’t return. I gradually get closer and closer, hoping that my subject stays put and comes to accept me as merely another nearby object. This dragonfly eventually did, as you can tell from such a close view.

The white hexagons on the dragonfly’s compound eyes may make you think I used a flash, but I didn’t.

© 2012 Steven Schwartzman

A good year for dragonflies

Click for greater clarity and considerably larger size.

2012 has been a good year for dragonflies in central Texas, as you see here. After looking at a guide to dragonflies of Texas, I can say that this seems to be a female eastern pondhawk, Erythemis simplicicollis. The flowers in the background are Thelesperma filifolium, known as greenthread, a name that accords with the color of the dragonfly, even if greenthread’s disk flowers are brown and its ray flowers yellow.

This picture comes from an August 1st morning along the Brushy Creek Regional Trail in Cedar Park, a rapidly grown (and still growing) suburb on the northern fringe of Austin.

© 2012 Steven Schwartzman