A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
Libellula incesta
A Slaty Skimmer dragonfly spotted at Huntley Meadows Park. This individual is a female, ovipositing eggs in the central wetland area. These photos provide a good view of the dragonfly's face. Female Slaty Skimmer dragonflies and female Great Blue Skimmer dragonflies are somewhat similar in appearance: female Slatys have a reddish-brown face; female Great Blues have a white face, as shown in the following spotting. Related Resource: Great Blue Skimmer dragonfly (female, oviposition, in flight) http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/120...
Huntley Meadows Park, a 1,425 acre wetland area in Fairfax County, Virginia USA. Related Resource: http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/huntl...
Copyright © 2012 Walter Sanford. All rights reserved. www.wsanford.com
Spotted on Jun 26, 2012
Submitted on Jul 29, 2012
2 Comments
Thanks for the compliment, Henish! OK, here's my secret: Watch for a mating pair of dragonflies "in wheel"; usually the female will begin oviposition soon after the pair separates. Many female dragonflies, especially skimmers, will tap the water over and over near the same spot. Set your camera for burst mode (at least 2 fps) and Shutter Priority (at least 1/1,000 sec, 1/1,300 sec for these shots), get as close as possible to the action (trust me, the female is usually preoccupied with laying eggs), and fire away! Initially you're likely to get many more hits than misses (e.g., these shots were the only good ones in a batch of ~50 shots); your skill will improve fairly quickly with practice.
Great .... how u take this shot ??..... many time i tried but it's not done... and amazing colors....