Sage Gardens

One of the best unexpected surprises of building my garden pond last year was the large number and variety of dragonflies and damselflies that started visiting on a regular basis.

Aside from simply being colorful and fun to watch, they also have some of the best names in the animal kingdom. How can you not like creatures with monikers like Meadowhawk, Blue Dasher, and Widow Skimmer?

While they were gone for the winter months, the dragonflies recently made their return in force with more than a dozen hanging around the pond daily.

(Click for larger image)

My lousy photography skills make it nearly impossible to catch one of these guys in flight, but when they stop for a moment, I can snap their picture. Above is a Flame Skimmer (how cool is that name!?) that’s been hanging around the pond the past week or so.

You can read more on the Dragonflies and Damselflies of California right here.

The University of Puget Sound has a very good site dedicated to Dragonflies (including photos, habitat maps and other information) as well. You will find that right here.