Eastern Pondhawks are Colorful Dragonflies and Great Hunters
![Dragonflies have to be quick in order to capture smaller flying insects in flight.](https://i0.wp.com/whatnext10.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/0F758A76-65C4-4E20-ADE0-120A15AEB2AD.jpeg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1)
Eastern pondhawks (Erythemis simplicicollis) are one of my favorite dragonflies. First of all, they’re quite attractive. The one in this post is a female. The males are a bright powder blue where the female is green. They’re a large dragonfly, and they are pretty bold, so they don’t mind nosy photographers. But I think the thing I like the best about them is that they hang out here on my little farm from early spring through the summer, and into the fall. I usually get mainly females since they tend to roam further from the water than the males, but once in awhile I see a male here, too. This little lady was very actively hunting the day I spotted her. In these photos she looks pretty calm, but actually, her eyes were moving almost constantly while she watched for prey to fly by. Twice while I was watching her she launched in a hurry after something I couldn’t even see. Both times she returned very shortly, so I know it wasn’t me scaring her. On both of those forays I lost track of her, so I don’t know if she was successful or not. It was still interesting to watch, though. She was definitely primed for the hunt.
![A beautifully green female Eastern pondhawk dragonfly sits, camouflaged on a leaf, waiting for unsuspecting prey to fly by.](https://i0.wp.com/whatnext10.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/EAC4EAE2-66E4-4CD2-9971-3948AC585568.jpeg?resize=537%2C716&ssl=1)
Recent Comments