![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.80acresonline.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/3dragonflies0151.jpg\" "\\"3dragonflies015\\"")
<\/a>At the top (for the moment) is a Roseate Skimmer, Orthemis ferruginea<\/em>, and below it a Neon Skimmer, Libellula croceipennis<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0 Lowest is a Widow Skimmer, Libellula luctuosa<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0 Smaller dragonflies buzzed the stick and sometimes drove off the larger ones–the Blue Dasher, Pachydiplax<\/em> longipennis,\u00a0 seemed to be celebrating having the top spot:<\/p>\nAt least four male Blue Dashers were zipping around the pond.\u00a0\u00a0 A lone Eastern Pondhawk male, Erythemis simplicicollis<\/em>,\u00a0 chose to perch lower down on this stick.<\/p>\n When a female Eastern Pondhawk came to oviposit in the pond, this male and several Blue Dashers skirmished overhead.<\/p>\n The female stayed low to the water, dipping and scooping just like the Neon Skimmer female in a previous post.\u00a0 The female has the same green face as the male.\u00a0 This is the first time I’ve documented this species ovipositing in the water garden, though it shows up almost every year.<\/p>\n Ignoring all the excitement overhead,\u00a0 Desert Firetail damselflies, Telebasis salva<\/em>, oviposited around the margin of a lily pad:<\/p>\n The males grip the females by the head; the females curl their abdomens under to lay eggs along the edge of the leaf, in the water.\u00a0\u00a0 Sometimes in summer a lily pad will have a “fringe” of Firetails around it,\u00a0 the pairs all mating and then ovipositing.<\/p>\n I put up a second perching stick, and that gave more dragonflies a chance to land, but there were still more dragonflies than perching room.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 However, I got some solo portraits:<\/p>\n Widow Skimmer:<\/p>\n Neon Skimmer:<\/p>\n Roseate Skimmer:<\/p>\n Finally, another view of Dragonflies On a Stick:<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n