Even though it is now several weeks into fall, the weather in central Florida is still warm and insects are still out in full force. On one of my recent trips to Cedar Key I was walking around looking for birds to photograph when I came to a small pond that was teeming with dragonflies. It was about an hour before sunset, and the low light was illuminating the dragonflies nicely as they flew back and forth over the pond. At that time of the evening it’s not unusual for dragonflies to patrol watery areas. They are looking for insects that tend to come out as the sunlight fades and they are also marking and protecting territories if they are males. This handsome male eastern pondhawk (Erythemis simplicicollis) was one of the many that were out on patrol that evening, and I was lucky enough to catch him in some wonderful light. Not only did he practically glow, but one of his wings had caught just a small amount of rainbow coloration thanks to that evening light. He was one of several males that had been swooping and diving at each other over a patch of thick vegetation not too far away from me. It was great fun watching their aerial acrobatics as they hovered, made abrupt turns and flew around each other. It was also a lot of fun trying to catch some of that action as it took place. I didn’t have a lot of luck that evening finding birds, but I sure did enjoy the dragonflies.