Late dragonflies at Huntley Meadows

The boardwalk at Huntley turns into a dragonfly runway in early September. I went out at 10:30 AM, after the water striders had warmed up but before the sun got brutal. The marsh was greener than I expected for this time of year — still full of buttonbush and arrowhead, still full of odonates.

I spent most of the morning at one bend where a pickerelweed clump kept attracting Blue Dashers. Once you learn their perch habits they are almost cooperative — they pick a stem, patrol, come back. I worked with the 80mm at f/5.6 to keep enough depth that the whole head was sharp.

Three species I didn’t expect: a Carolina Saddlebags that cruised for two minutes and then dropped on a dead cattail, a male Eastern Amberwing that posed obligingly, and one teneral Spotted Spreadwing near the cattail edge.

Also two Red-shouldered Hawks calling back and forth from separate stands of oak. I tried a few shots through branches with the phone because I’d left the long lens in the car, and they came out about how you’d expect.

I came home sweaty and covered in boardwalk splinters and very happy. Fall dragonflies are one of the better secrets of September.