The start of damsel season

I hadn't intended to make a swing by this spot along the shore of the mill pond that was odonate heaven last summer. It just seemed too early for there to be anyone—dragonfly or damselfly—on the wing yet. But I'd already spotted a few dragons, and so, on a whim, I stopped by, crouched down, and watched the shallow water and the just-beginning-to-emerge vegetation. It didn't take long for my whim to be rewarded. There weren't a lot of them, but the shoreline plants were definitely serving as resting and sunning spots for the year's first-emerging Zygopterans. As has long been the case, I didn't know the identity of this kind of flier—learning the damselflies is on my to-do list for 2014—but my patient friend and mentor Dave Wagner, a University of Connecticut odonate expert, was good enough to look at this image and suggest that I had captured an Eastern Forktail female. In the very near future, I need to capture one with my insect net and start examining it and other damselfly species with a magnifying glass so I can master the ID business. I think it's time I stopped solely relying on the kindness of taxonomists.