Wings To Fly

I spent part of Sunday morning weeding the garden [Yes, I was really doing the hated chore that is called Yard Work], noting the heavy prevalence of thistle, crabgrass, prickly lettuce and other undesirables in the lawn, when something buzzed near my head.

Fortunately, not a wasp (I really don't like wasps, especially after several nested in the back of the mailbox and went after me when I reached in to pull out the day's mail - I think I ran screaming around the cul de sac - and yeah, I got stung twice).

It was a harmless dragonfly, flitting around our fish pond - I watched the buzz of his wings as he circled around - at the high frequency of flight, his wings appear to be a blur of blue. The he grabbed one of the Iris leaves and settled into stillness. To my surprise, its wings weren't blue, but clear with black and white spots.

And so the yard work was abandoned for a few minutes because I had just found my newest photo shoot subject...



He was a bit skittish - if I got too close, he would take off, circle around, but then find purchase again on the same branch or leaf. I was able to get several decently detailed photos before relinquishing my camera for the garden gloves.



After some web research, I learned my subject was a male twelve-spotted skimmer. Although this dragonfly is fairly common, I was glad to have captured its amazing transparent wings. And with these photos, I've hit 10,000 uploads to my flickr stream.

Yup, I take a lot of photos.... because I really need an excuse to get out of yard work every now and then....