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Common Whitetail Dragon fly

Odonata Plathemis lydia

Photo by HeatherMiller
Published on Project Noah
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Field Notes

Description:

Bright, iridescent blue body with clear double-pair of wings with dark black sections just shy of the ends of the wings. It has a black head. It was found at the Atlanta Botanic Gardens.

Habitat:

This dragon fly was in the area of the waterfall & pond area of the Atlanta Botanic Gardens.

Notes:

Thanks for the ID help.

Reference Links:

Dragonfly

Species ID Suggestions

Common Whitetail

Plathemis lydia
MichaelFulbright
0

Comments (6)
HeatherMiller
Walter aka Geodialist - When you asked I honestly forgot which camera I took this photo with. I had to go look at the photo data on the original pic. iPhoto makes it easy to see that info, thankfully. First time I went to the Botanic Gardens this year, I had an awful point and click. This time I took my best point and click. Next time I will take it AND my DSLR. It's so heavy and we took my mom who really just wanted to walk it...so I was constantly playing catch-up as she'd "seen" that already and walked on to the next thing. It was comical.
Geodialist
Thanks for the detailed reply, Heather! On one hand, I'm surprised you used a point and shoot camera -- the image quality is so good I thought you must have used a DSLR. On the other hand, I'm not surprised -- sometimes my iPhone camera produces remarkable results, especially for such a simple device! One of my short-term spotting goals: Photograph a female Whitetail dragonfly (which is brown, I think). Walter Sanford, a.k.a., Geodialist ([email protected])
HeatherMiller
Geodialist - I took my small camera to the Botanical Gardens...It is a Canon PowerShot SX130IS 5.0-60.0 mm settings were 4000x3000 1.7mb jpg, ISO 200, 60mm, f/5.6, 1/320. Auto White Balance. I just walked very slowly up on it with the camera on the highest zoom it did and walked so my shadow was cast behind me and then held the camera even closer. The dragonfly was zipping all over but it kept coming back to close to the same spot and I got closer each time.
Geodialist
What photo gear *did* you use to take the nice shots of the dragonfly?
Geodialist
What photo gear do you use to take the nice shots of the dragonfly?
MichaelFulbright
This is a male...you can find these in the woods a good distance from water very often.

Spotted for Missions

Mission
WILD Cities: Urban Biodiversity
Mission
Global Dragonflies & Damselflies
Photographed
PublishedJune 24, 2011

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