Teneral Whitetail, home

I was beginning to wonder if something was wrong with our odonate population. To be sure, May was often chilly, many times unnaturally so, but I thought it was also unnatural that this month's dragonfly playbill appeared to be almost completely empty. I'd spotted a few damselflies in various places, but their larger brothers and sisters were conspicuous in their absence... at least in my backyard. With a little bit of warm and wet weather, however, there are indeed odes out and about. This teneral Common Whitetail get the honors for being the first common dragonfly on the ridge, and in the late afternoon, these darners, which are either females or males that will soon change their color and wing characteristics, are everywhere, landing in the hostas, on the leaf litter, on the garden benches. I haven't had one of these photogenic beasts land on me yet, but I've had a few near-misses. I hope I have the right close-up lens handy when the inevitable happens.