Making Dragons

I met up with my nature group this morning for a walk along part of the Appalachian Trail - always one of my favorite outings of the year.  The weather was perfect and we saw a nice assortment of birds, dragons and butterflies.  In fact, I was a bit conflicted in terms of what to blip today - too many great things to choose from.  

Ultimately, I decided on this rather heavily cropped shot of a female Blue Dasher ovipositing (laying eggs).  As all of you who photograph dragons know, this is a hard shot to get, for many reasons.  In this case, I was at an awkward angle and the female blended into the duckweed making it hard to see her, let alone grab focus.  So, this was the best of a bunch of shots - and I'm actually pretty happy with it.  And if you're not sure what's going on here - she is dipping her abdomen into the water in quick movements, depositing eggs on the greenery, while on the wing.  

My three other favorites from today are on Flickr, starting HERE with the very cool American Snout Butterfly, and following with a dragonfly and my first ever Walkingstick insect.  Like I said, a good day.

Didn't get home until mid-afternoon, so can't report on activity in the yard.  But a few glances outside assured me that all is well.

Cheers.

Debbi