Interacting With Dragonflies

Autumn Meadowhawks in the wheel position.

Interacting with dragonflies is part of the fun of dragonflying.  In the photo above a pair of Autumn Meadowhawks in the wheel position rests on my finger.  These are the latest flying dragonflies in our area, and they are very comfortable with landing on people or sitting on your finger.  Betsy and I have given them the title of "Friendliest Dragonfly."

The pleasures of interacting with dragonflies.

Nature is a delight.

One day while taking pictures of dragonflies I had a Blue-eyed Darner on my finger.  A father and his daughter stopped and asked what I was doing.  When I told them, the girl said, "Can I hold it?"  I said sure, and transferred the cooperative dragonfly from my finger to her hand.  As you can see, she was delighted with the experience.  It was a beautiful dragonfly, with incredible blue colors.  The dragonfly sat on her hand for about five minutes.  We eventually walked closer to the shore, she held her hand out, and the dragonfly took off.  She said, "Will it come back?"  "No," I said, "it has a busy life and lots of things to do."

The dragonfly had not been caught with a net or manipulated in anyway – it was a "free range" dragonfly.  I simply lifted it up from the bushes on my fingertip.  It was free to fly away any time it wanted.