Today turned out to be a great day for photographing insects in Stony Swamp. I went out looking to get some photos of Spring Azures to replace some of my older photos taken with older gear, something I wanted to do last year but didn’t get around to doing. I tried last week and failed because the butterflies were constantly on-the-wing, but the much cooler temperatures today kept many butterflies perched still in the warming rays of the sun and I was able to get a few different shots of the Spring Azures (first below and others posted in my recent additions gallery), my best yet, and some of my best shots yet of Henry’s Elfin (third below) and Mustard White butterflies (fourth and fifth below).

The best moment of the day by far, though, was encountering and photographing this unexpected Harlequin Darner dragonfly. I didn’t have dragonflies on my radar at all today because I didn’t think there would be anything but the early season dragonflies out yet and likely not many of them, but as I was heading off down the trail to move on somewhere else after I had taken enough Spring Azure shots, two Harlequin Darners came along and one perched on a log near me. I approached and Iike the with butterflies, the cooler temperatures kept the dragonfly still as I approached for a close look and a couple of shots. After a minute or so the dragonfly took off and disappeared into the distance.

After the Harlequin Darner left I hung around for a while to see if I could relocate it or find more but there were a couple of Horse Flies (last photo below) pestering me that eventually drove me mad and away from the area. If a Horse Fly can feel confused this one must have as it ran around my pant leg and repeatedly came up dry when it sank its razor sharp mandibles into the fabric trying to tap a well of me. I held my pant leg away from my leg to prevent that and with the other hand took a shot. After that I just wanted to get away from the Horse Flies because I knew one was eventually going to bite and I wanted none of it - these guys were big! - so I continued on to see what else I could find. It wasn’t long before the clouds rolled in and my sightings quickly dropped off to nothing.