Dragonflies

[nanila]

I was more than a little chuffed to be able to capture this shot of dragonflies in mid-air. Taken from a canal barge in Ohio, USA, in late July.

Comments

[rain_gryphon]

Oh, very nice!

[nanila]

Thank you!

[tree_and_leaf]

Bravo!

[nanila]

Yay, thanks!

[shirebound]

Such an exquisite creature.

[nanila]

There so many of them - and lots of different species - on that small stretch of river. It was a joy to watch.

[minoanmiss]

Beautiful!

[nanila]

Yes! There were these gorgeous bronze ones as well - bronze wings as well as bodies.

[weofodthignen]

Pretty! Well done!

[nanila]

Thank you!

[ironed_orchid]

It is excellent and you should feel good!

[nanila]

*twirls* Thank you!

[yourlibrarian]

You should be -- that is a great shot!

[nanila]

Thank you! It helped that the barge was almost keeping pace with them as they skimmed over the water.

[veritas_poet]

Oh, dragonflies! I am bugophobic as can be, but I love dragonflies! They're like mythical creatures come to life.

How I wish I'd taken photos of the one I saw yesterday. My dad showed me one that had been caught on the clothesline. Somehow there was a spiderweb hanging down from the clothesline & the poor thing got stuck in it.

But when we looked out the window a little bit later, we thought we saw it move! It was very windy, so I thought it was the wind. But my dad was more certain, so he got a broom and broke the web. The little guy (?) was alive! Poor thing. One of its wings was torn up. And when I held it, I saw one of the legs was stuck to the wing by more web. Holy cow, that stuff is strong! I was so afraid I'd break its leg in trying to free it. But I managed to do it.

I stayed with it a while, then put it in one of the flowerpots to rest. Poor thing. I wonder how long it had been hanging there.

I didn't have the heart to go look today to see its condition. But my dad said he checked (at some point during the day) and it was nowhere to be seen! So I'm hoping it was able to fly off & have a second chance at life.

[nanila]

I hope so too! As we were walking around the barge's moorings, we found several baby dragonflies caught in the remnants of spider webs on the wooden railings. My Youngest made it his mission to rescue as many as he could find. All of them were still alive so we're hopeful that they managed to fly off after we carefully untangled them.

[veritas_poet]

Aw, glad you got the kids involved! It's a good thing & a good lesson to help creatures weaker than you.

[veritas_poet]

And sorry, didn't mean to steal your thunder, as it were. I love this photo! So glad you were able to get it. As I said, I'm generally not a bug fan. But I'm fascinated by these critters!

[nanila]

I understand, and no worries!

[fred_mouse]

V. nice!

[nanila]

Thank you! :)

[silveradept]

Really great shot of them in flight.

[nanila]

Thank you. I had to take the opportunity as the barge was travelling quite swiftly at that point, and nearly kept pace with them, which made it far easier to focus.