Double Damselfly Delight!

We went for a wonderful morning swim at nearby Whipple Dam state park. The water was cool and clear and refreshing and we swam for a long time. It was my favorite swim of summer so far.

Whipple Dam is host to many sizes and colors of dragonfly and damselfly; and I saw many of the tiny neon blue ones zipping around and sitting on the buoys that mark the edge of the swimming area. I also noted what I thought might be exuviae on the buoys; an exuvia is the little gray exoskeleton-type encasing that dragonflies and damselflies leave behind when they emerge from the aquatic nymph phase with a fresh set of wings and take to the skies.

I lamented not having my camera with me to capture them, but my camera is not waterproof. And so before and after our swim, I settled for meandering along the banks with my camera. I took many pictures, a few of which turned out pretty well; but I thought the image posted here was the most arresting of the bunch. So it won the day on this auspicious occasion of my celebration of 200 blips!

For lovers of order Odonata (which includes both dragonflies and damselflies), here is a link to information about them.

Also, here are some additional blips of these amazing creatures:
large dragonfly (king of the hill!)
large green dragonfly laying eggs, its eyes reflecting a perfect blue-sky summer day
dragonfly being born to flight
tiny blue damselfly

On a more personal note, this blip represents my 200th blippiversary! And so I would like to take this opportunity to say how much I've loved being part of the blip community. Taking pictures every day has made me a better photographer. And even better than that, it's forced me to LOOK for and FIND something beautiful each and every day.

Thanks to all of you who have left me stars and hearts, and made very kind comments over these past 200 days. You make it all worthwhile!

Here's to the next 200, and keep on blipping! :-)