Common whitetail dragonfly

Saturday
We had a good brisk hike at Rowe Woods this morning, albeit a rather sweaty one. Our temperatures and humidity at present are more like the height of summer rather than early summer, and we were glad to be walking in the shade for much of our walk. I took most of my photographs near the ponds as we were returning to the car - frogs, turtles, dragonflies and red-winged blackbirds. There are cattails (bullrushes ) around the edge of one of the ponds, and there was obviously a red-winged blackbird nest among them, as if you walked along this one stretch of boardwalk, you would get “dive-bombed” by one of the adults that was standing guard from a nearby shrub! It really took this one guy by surprise - I was the other end of the pond, and I heard him cry out, “What on earth was that?!” I had a hard time deciding which to post, as I had a couple of good frog and painted turtle photographs, but in the end I went with this dragonfly. I’m not an expert on dragonflies, and initially I thought it was the widow skimmer, which I have blipped before, but when I got home and saw the pictures on my iPad and referred back to my previous shots, I noticed the black markings on the wings are in a different location, and further research revealed that this is the Common Whitetail dragonfly. At one time I would have just taken a photo and left it at that, but I love how Blip prompts us to be more inquisitive and do more research, and learn in the process!
One year ago: Yellow poplar