Sharing A Moment With A Dragonfly

Every day, I have to visit the backyard.  At least twice every day, I inspect the pool, the irrigation, the orchids, the plants.

You get the idea.

This particular day I was standing out back staring at the pool and the plants and noticed that there was something buzzing around my head.  The Monarch Butterfly that had been fluttering around had gone, there are new plantings of Milkweed at the nearby park and I think she got blown off course.

I hope so, I need more seeds to start more plants.  The park's plants are down to sticks only a week after planting.

The buzzing went on, and I noticed the piece of bamboo in a nursery pot was leaning.  It was not due to a bit of weight because there was something sitting there.  A Dragonfly.  I am sure that the Gecko that has colonized the particular stake was inside of it, it's a nice place for a lizard, but this Dragonfly was just sitting there.

From my experience, Dragonflies will not sit there long, especially if you are Too Close.  I was able to reach out to the little creature, but did not.  I did not want to disturb it.

I think it was watching me as I was watching it.  

Actually they are quite beautiful, and I purposely do not treat my lawn with insecticides because I want to allow them to stay here.  After all, they do eat the mosquitoes that are a pestilence here.  

After a rain, wait a day or three and you find squadrons of these little jewels come through to clear the air in advanced formations.

This was none of that.   We stood there, watching each other.  I realized it was content to stay there and watch me as I pulled out my camera and got quite close to it to get three pictures.  The one up top was the best of them.  

Mind you it is really quite rare when you can get that close to an insect, and in this case I was less than a hand width away when I took the picture.

One of the benefits of not killing all the wildlife that inhabits your yard is that they will allow you to watch them at times.