Wow cool pictures Jenny. Thanks for sharing.

Oh, that's great. I have damsels but no dragons. Yours is gorgeous! Somewhere I have a bunch of photos of a damsel just after emerging with it's wings all crumpled. I was so excited especially since it means that the goldfish aren't eating quite everything.
Vanessa

Great pics Jenny!!!! I have a few varieties all of a sudden (Those weird larvae in the settling pond we talked about on the phone). They are so beautiful.

I can't wait to see your pond again!!!!!

Lisa

Lucky you for seeing the dragonfly emerge - and great shots of it! I've only seen the damselflies emerge.

I think your damsel is an male eastern forktail and the dragonfly is a male blue dasher.

Great pics Jenny!

Thanks all for your compliments.

I meant to go back out every few minutes to get some good pics of the dragonfly nymph, but you know how it is when you get old(er). You go in the house with good intentions to come back out but you see a lamp that needs to be dusted. While you're dusting the lamp you see the bottle of Resolve you left on the end table. You put the Resolve back under the sink and take the cleanser to clean the sink. When you put the cleanser back you find the plant food you've been looking for for weeks. You mix it up and water the plants and find the scissors you have been looking for in the sunroom. You put the scissors back in the drawer where you keep the extra batteries for the camera............the camera, the dragon fly nymph, you fly out the door. There is no nymph, no dragon fly, no exoskeleton. Darn, I missed it, oh well maybe next year. I could have just sat out on the swing and waited, but it was 90º+ outside. Here's one more pic I shot last night.

{{gwi:218035}}

Jenny

Hi!
Great that you're enjoying the dragons and damsels at your pond. jeanner SW Ohio gave you the correct IDs. But you shouldn't have to wait till next year - they should continue emerging from your pond until the fall. The photos of the exuvia (left behind exoskeleton)are empty shells. They look like they might be darner exuvia - and they emerge at night... try going out with flashlite on a warm nite after it's been dark an hour.

I LOVE dragonflies and give programs about them in the west; having written 2 dragonfly fieldguides and a children's coloring book. The damsels eat aphids and white flies and such off our pond plants, while the dragons eat the mosquitoes and black flies, and both of their nymph eat more nymph of the 'bad guys' than the adults do! So they're really a nice thing to have around.

Keep on enjoying them! Hope you get some more photos!

Cheers!!
Kathy Biggs

Here is a link that might be useful: Bigsnest Wildlife Pond.

Thanks for the info about the night emergence, I did not know that! I'm a newbie with the odes but I get as excited with a new ode as I do with a new bird. I think the eastern forktails are so cute, the males look like little blue and green neon lights floating through the grass. If I could just get the cruiser that patrols my hill to land for just one second so I could id it!

Those are wonderful pictures, thank you. And the story about how you have to take a picture of a dragonfly nymph in order to find the plant food you've been looking for is oh so true...

Here the dragonflies are a brilliant orange-red, quite amazing critters.