Yesterday morning we saw one of our annual nature marvels taking place. Thousands of dragonflies were migrating south past our house for most of the morning. Today there are a few but nothing like the huge number we saw yesterday morning.
The migration is apparently triggered by the passage of a cold front but, as far as I could tell, we didn’t see any cool air yesterday – the temperature topped out at 105F according to my car thermometer. Regardless, something told the dragonflies that it was time to head for warmer climes (!).
While the insects are migrating, getting good pictures is not easy since they are rather more interested in flying than setting down on a handy branch. As a result, this picture is actually a few weeks old. It was taken at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center where they have a couple of ponds that are generally a good place to find dragonflies.
This Roseate Skimmer was a lot trickier to photograph than the Blue Dashers whose pictures I have posted before. This is a larger insect but significantly more skittish so getting close enough to get a shot like this proved difficult. Once again, though, the trusty 70-300mm VR lens with 56mm of extension tubes did the job, letting me get this image from about 18-24 inches away from the dragonfly.