Calico Pennant

In my several years as an ardent but definitely amateur odonatologist, I've managed to learn a number of the more common local species quite well. This knowledge has also helped me know when I'm confronting the opposite situation: the species that are new... to me, at least. So it was that on my walk this afternoon, I was sure, at a glance, that the ode in my lens was nothing I'd ever seen before. I was actually quite lucky to have spotted it at all. The sighting took place in the high grasses of the field across from the God-awful development I've talked about in the past, and on the increasingly rare times I have to walk by this abomination to get to places worth exploring, I do so fast, my head down to keep my heart from breaking yet again at the sight of a once-beautiful woodland now sprouting utterly inappropriate McMansions. As I sprinted past, I noticed a few odes in the meadow, and I stopped to watch them. One landed on an Orchard Grass stem, and it proved relatively approachable, so I photographed it at close range from various angles. I knew it was a kind of Pennant dragonfly—a member of the Skimmer clan that often cling to the top of plants and look like little flags—but I saw enough of the wings to know that it wasn't the usual variety, the Halloween Pennant. So it was back to the books, and there, I tracked it down. The ode was a Calico Pennant. It's common in the area, but completely new to me. Add another species to the Life List.