On Gossamer Wings

These lovely segmented creatures are skittish and dart away when I moved the kayak near. They are not dragonflies, but a suborder. These beauties are damsalflies and are most likely in the bluet family. (follow link to read more!) 

There were also just a few dragonflies about. I imagine more will show up as the season progresses. Unless the ducks ate all the larvae! I found a 'shell' hanging from a pond weed and decided to post all three photos of stages I have found for these giant insects. 

This last picture was from last summer. If the damsalfly is hard to photograph, these are even more difficult! 

Dragonflies!

I have seen a great many dragonflies on the lake this summer. I finally was able to photograph them as they fought, mated, and rested in the sun!!

 I spent the afternoon floating on the lake under a stunning blue sky with HOT hot HOT sunshine!

An odd colored dragonfly, you can't see, but it has some blue in it.

 This tree is so long! I didn't realise how long it actually was until I saw it thru the still lake water. The kayak is not even at the tip of it!

 I thought this was fascinating. I didn't know dragonflies mated in a heart shape. Google it. They have a fairly violent sex life!!!!

 The sun on the water was magical. It was also very hard to see what I was trying to photograph (It was another shot of the couple above, they didn't mind the camera).

A few days later, dragonflies were landing on the kayak! They did a lot of fighting, so resting was a good thing! 

 Another really fun tree I found on the other end of the lake!