Dragonflies and damselflies dart across a Palomar Mountain pond, providing the perfect setting for a sit-and-see adventure.
For a moment, I felt like I had been transported to another planet where the residents had huge eyes, colorful bodies and the ability to fly at incredible speeds or hang motionless in space.While hiking past a pond on Palomar Mountain, the bustle of colorful flying insects had caught my attention and triggered a sit-and-see adventure where I plunk myself down someplace and simply observe the natural activities around me.
Delicate, powder blue pondhawks would hover in place just inches above the carpet of floating plants on the pond’s surface, and watching all of this from a distance were the two eyes of a bullfrog poking out just above the waterline.A blue dasher dragonfly. Some of the large dragonflies, like the common whitetail skimmer, were relatively easy to photograph.
With a little research I learned my new friends were dragonflies and damselflies that share the same habitat, have similar habits but are separate species.I learned that dragonflies are typically larger than the more delicate damselflies. They also perch with wings extended, while damselflies when resting hold their wings next to their body. Both species have two pairs of wings, which give them great mobility and the ability to fly in any direction, including sideways or backward.
By now, my typical one-hour sit-and-see had turned into several hours and over 700 photographs of these amazing bugs.
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