Damselflies!

[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.