Lancet Clubtail female, home

Finally, finally, finally, the air is starting to be filled with the glints of sunlight on wings—a sight that indicates the presence of dragonflies of every size and shape. I was beginning to get nervous and imagined that, somehow, our non-winter wreaked havoc on the local odonates and the paucity of these creatures throughout May was a sign of something bad... really bad. But in the past few days, I've started to spot all the May characters—just a bit on the late side. This one, a female Lancet Clubtail, is typically one of the first members of the Gomphidae to take to the sky, but I didn't see any last month. The Lancets are here now, however, and showing off their clubtail stuff, along with the lances that line the abdomen. Because they're fairly weak fliers, I wind up seeing lots of them on the ground and low in the greenery; as a result of this behavior, my photo database is chockful of Lancet images. I'm not complaining.