There are a lot of dragonflies at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens when we visited last Friday. I used to think anything that looked like a dragonfly was a dragonfly…but I am learning, slowly, about damsels, darners, spreadwings, skimmers, and emeralds. As near as I can tell, the critter above is a Twelve Spotted Skimmer, though it lacks the cloudy blue patches on the wings of the other 12 Spots I photographed that day, and certainly has some extra color in the tail.

I found images on the internet of both these types, all labeled 12 Spotted Skimmer…so we will go with that until someone who really knows their Odonata sets me right 😉

I also found this Emerald Spreadwing resting on a leaf (for about a second) where it is somewhat difficult to see. The best part of photographing Odonata at a place like the CMBG, is the backgrounds!

And this Blue Darner resting on rock where it is really hard to see (the wings at least)…and, as you may notice, very hard for the camera to focus on. It was pretty still so I wish I had taken the time to check focus after the shot…but there it is! Just a “for the record” shot.

Nikon Coolpix P500 in (except for the Darner) Close Up scene mode, with the zoom setting over-ridden. 1) 499mm equivalent field of view, f5.7 @ 1/320th @ ISO 160. 2) 468mm @ f5.7 @ 1/200th @ ISO 160. 3) 435mm @ F5.6 @ 1/250th @ ISO 160. 4) 578mm @ f5.7 @ 1/200th @ ISO 160. 5) 810mm @ f5.7 @ 1/320th @ ISO 160.

Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness.