Here’s a brightly colored fellow that was brave enough to let me get my camera lens within a few inches of him. He’s a Meadowhawk Dragonfly, also called a Red Darter, and commonly called a Nomad. He belongs to the genus Sympetrum. They abound in the garden ponds here currently and are in their mating cycle. I noticed a certain type of behavior with these dragonflies. When they fly away, they always seem to come back to the almost exact, same resting spot they were before. They’ll keep doing this over and over, as if they’ve claimed a small territory.

I cropped the original image to see more detail of this insect. Notice the little hairs on his thorax, the red veins in his lacy wings, and the textured, spiny things on his legs. How fascinating!