{"id":104416,"date":"2022-07-20T04:41:25","date_gmt":"2022-07-20T10:41:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=104416"},"modified":"2022-07-20T06:11:07","modified_gmt":"2022-07-20T12:11:07","slug":"female-eight-spotted-skimmer-dragonfly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/07\/20\/female-eight-spotted-skimmer-dragonfly\/","title":{"rendered":"Female Eight-spotted Skimmer Dragonfly"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"RestingResting female Eight-spotted Skimmer dragonfly \u2013 Nikon D500, f9, 1\/1000, ISO 800, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Earlier this week my last subject of the morning was a female Eight-spotted Skimmer<\/span><\/a> dragonfly that landed in front of me next to a creek in the mountains. I can’t resist photographing dragonflies or damselflies. Having this female skimmer in my viewfinder delighted me.<\/p>\n

Before I acquired the gear that allowed me to become a bird photographer I focused on dragonflies quite often with my best friend, Patty, in Florida. Back then we wandered through botanical gardens, state and county parks and other natural areas looking for insects and flowers to photograph. We called it “splorin” together.<\/p>\n

Today I am still splorin and looking for insects like this female Eight-spotted Skimmer to photograph. Dragonflies and damselflies eat flying insects and anything that eats mosquitoes and biting flies is fantastic in my mind.<\/p>\n

This female skimmer didn’t stay very long on her perch because a man and his two Brittany Spaniels walked by.<\/p>\n

\"MaleMale Eight-spotted Skimmer at Glover Pond \u2013 Nikon D500, f9, 1\/1000, ISO 800, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Male and female dragonflies of the same species can look quite different from each other. I decided to include a photo of a male Eight-spotted Skimmer (Libellula forensis<\/em>) that I took at Farmington Bay WMA in 2016 for comparison.<\/p>\n

In the past two weeks or so I have noticed more dragonflies, bees and other insects in the Wasatch Mountains than I have seen since spring arrived. For weeks and weeks I was concerned because I wasn’t seeing as many of them as I normally do this time of the year. I hope to photograph more dragonflies before the summer is over and fall arrives.<\/p>\n

I adore having “other things with wings” in my viewfinder!<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my insect and spider images.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Earlier this week my last subject of the morning was a female Eight-spotted Skimmer dragonfly that landed in front of me next to a creek in the mountains.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":104386,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1022,5363,697,1731,26,773],"tags":[4004,3940,4366,5366,2204,5364,10239,4070,715,5365,4062,4094,4069,2558,4104,1984,4156,9626,4697,5117,2315,4095],"class_list":["post-104416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-davis-county-utah","category-eight-spotted-skimmers","category-farmington-bay-wma","category-summit-county-utah","category-utah","category-wasatch-mountains","tag-adult","tag-canyon","tag-cattails","tag-dragonflies","tag-dragonfly","tag-eight-spotted-skimmer","tag-eight-spotted-skimmer-dragonfly","tag-female","tag-glover-pond","tag-libellula-forensis","tag-male","tag-marsh","tag-mountains","tag-odonata","tag-perched","tag-pond","tag-resting","tag-riparian-habitat","tag-skimmer","tag-skimmers","tag-summer-3","tag-wetlands"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t