A rather common male Emperor dragonfly

I wandered down to a large pond wondering what I might see. I wasn’t surprised that it seemed quiet on a fairly cloudy afternoon with little bird life. But this male Emperor dragonfly flew constantly over the water, and I was able to begin to notice the patterns in its flight paths as it saw and approached a possible prey. Mostly it seemed to decide that it wasn’t suitable prey after all, at which point it would veer away sharply. I hoped I might be able to see it catch an insect in flight, but that didn’t happen.

As usual of the many pictures I took only a few were suitable for blipping, being mostly out of focus. This picture seemed the best one to show most of the Emperor’s body, wings and head, with a rather muddy pond as background.