Lunch... Is Served

As I walked along the path in the O'Brien and Proud Families Park I saw dozens of these "beautiful" Golden Orb spiders. This one was feasting on a recently caught dragonfly. Very interesting to watch, at a comfortable distance, that is.

YAD

YAD - Yet Another Dragonfly. I love these little creatures, the wild colours, a great design and their agility is great to watch and rather challenging to photograph. Sometimes they sit still long enough to get a picture, like this one today. I need to find out what species it is, but it is bed time first, I'll do that tomorrow...
Update: I tried to identify this dragonfly but was not very successful, any ideas anyone?

Golden Dragonfly

As I was about to leave the Gold Coast Botanical Gardens, I thought I'd try to get another shot of a dragonfly. I stood around for a few minutes and was rewarded with this shot of a dragonfly basking in the last rays of sunshine. I haven't been able to identify it yet, but thought I'd post it in the mean time.

(Best viewed on a big screen, click the image to enlarge)

Dragonfly!

I came across a beautiful lily pond not far from where I live where I saw many different kinds of dragonflies. Interesting little creatures, boasting wildly coloured bodies and amazing agility. Of course I had to take a few photos. I saw a beautiful one at the Brisbane City Botanic gardens too, shown here.

The first two pictures are from a male Wandering Percher, known by the black markings on the red body and the distinctive red marks on their wing tips.

Here is a male Black-headed Skimmer, also with beautiful coloured spots in their wing tips.

Not a dragonfly, but a related cousin called a damselfly. Pictured here is the Blue Riverdamsel. When perched, damselflies generally keep their wings folded behind them, whereas dragonflies keep them spread open.

The Australian Emerald, taken as it flew over some very murky water.

 As kids we used to call these insects "helicopters", and this image clearly shows why. This one is coming in to land on lily pad #2 after being cleared by Air Traffic Control.

Lastly, a silhouette of a Black-headed Skimmer perched on a twig with a lily leaf in the background, shimmering in the sunlight.

Weird and Wonderful

I took a stroll through the City Botanic Gardens at the South Eastern end of the Brisbane CBD. This beautiful dragonfly posed briefly for me before flying off to the next lily in the pond.

Based on the website http://www.saveourwaterwaysnow.com.au, this is a specimen of the Ictinogomphus Australis species, more commonly known as the Australian Tiger for obvious reasons.