I started to get semi-serious about photographing dragonflies in the summer of 2020. Two factors contributed. I paid an unplanned trip to McDaniels Marsh without a kayak and found the area above the dam filled with dragonflies. So I spent an enjoyable hour taking photos. The second factor was the emergence of iNaturalist, a great resource for identifying species of almost anything wild in nature.

So here I begin to collect dragonfly photos from 2020 with a few from previous years. I decided on alphabetical order lacking any other good plan. The photos are presented with a mixture of single images and slide shows. The slide shows are best viewed on a laptop or desktop computer rather than a phone or tablet.

I found a beautiful Autumn Meadowhawk at Pillsbury State Park.

On Lake Coniston in Croydon, a Black-shouldered Spinyleg landed on my kayak.

A dragonfly I found many places in the Upper Valley in both NH and VT is the Blue Dasher.  The males have blue abdominal segments while the females have narrow yellow parallel stripes on their abdomen.

Here is the beautiful Calico Pennant.  I found them at a one-nest heron rookery in Springfield, NH and at Pillsbury State Park in Washington. These are both males.

At McDaniel’s Marsh I found some Chalk-fronted Corporal dragonflies.

Common Whitetail dragonflies were found at Esther Currier WMA in New London and the Dartmouth-Gile State Forest in Springfield.

I found Dot-tailed Whiteface dragonflies at the Esther Currier WMA.

Near Kezar Lake in Sutton, I found a Dragonhunter.

I had a lot of fun photographing Eastern Amberwings at Gile Pond in Sutton and the Esther Currier WMA at Low Plain. It was a challenge to get them in the air, but I got some that are reasonably sharp.

Eastern Pondhawk dragonflies were present in New London and West Lebanon.

I found a Four-spotted Skimmer at Reed’s Marsh in Orford.

A Common Green Darner was caught by a Vermont Center for Ecostudies biologist on Monhegan Island, ME in late September 2019.

Martha’s Pennant dragonflies were found at Mill pond in Pillsbury State Park.  Like with the Blue Darners, the males have blue abdominal segments while the females have yellow parallel stripes on their abdomen.

Meadowhawk dragonflies are a family whose individual species are hard to identify. I believe the first image on this page is an Autumn Meadowhawk, but I am not sure. These five are from Bradford and Newport, NH.

I found Slaty Skimmer dragonflies in many locations. 

Below is a Frosted Whiteface (top) and a Slaty Skimmer (bottom) sharing the same leaf at McDaniels Marsh.

At Russell Pond in Sutton I had a good time trying to photograph Slaty Skimmers landing (first 3 photos) and leaving a Pickerelweed (last 5 photos) .

Spangled Skimmer dragonflies have distinctive pterostigma (at the tips of their wings) which are half black and half white. The first photo is a female with a yellowish abdomen and the others with blue abdomens are male. This is the same as many other species of dragonflies.

The Twelve-spotted Skimmer is fairly easy to identify, though it is sometimes hard to count all the spots.

I found Widow Skimmer dragonflies in Quechee, VT; Sutton, NH; and West Lebanon, NH at the Least Bittern pond.

I found Frosted Whiteface dragonflies mating at McDaniel’s Marsh.  I also found them at Pillsbury State Park and Esther Currier WMA.