Dragons and fish

We had a visit today from a dragonfly that I rarely see in the backyard.  It was a pintail pondhawk and you can't miss it because of its long pin-like tail and contrasting chunky body.

Mr. Pintail has a distinctive look.

An Eastern pondhawk brought his blue and green colors to the party, along with our most frequent but not so colorful visitor, a four-spot pennant.  The latter looks like a biplane when he spreads out his wings while resting on a branch.

These guys have an expressive face with big green eyes.

 

Nice twig for an afternoon's rest

Finally, a bluet damselfly rested on a plant over the water, while another flew joined to his mate in a courtship posture.  Since the female seemed to have her abdomen in the water, it could be that she was depositing her eggs on something just below the surface of the canal.  I always wonder how they can fly while joined together, but they don't seem to have a problem with it.

Resting his delicate self on a narrow leaf.

The little lady is curling her abdomen under the water and possibly laying eggs while still attached to her mate.

Now on to the fishies.  The water in the canal was still today, so it was easy to see some of the fish that make it their home.  In particular, a school of striped Mayan cichlids swam around together, and a solo tilapia that was pretty large also joined the mix.

Showing off his pretty stripes

The whole school came out to enjoy the sunny day

Tilapia having some alone time in the shallow water

Sadly, the Egyptian goose babies have not come back in a while, so mom and dad must have taken them to a new spot to explore.  The gallinule babies, still numbering five, are still with us, and mom and dad continue to spend a lot of time keeping them in check.  They spent quite a while across the canal today but didn't come over to our side.

Whew!  Finally got them together, mostly!  Little one on the right has something to say about that.

In the canal, a turtle is still snooping at what I'm doing.  He's been doing that for days.

I see you're still there.  I'm still here watching.

The patio flowers continue to look good and now there are two dahlias in full bloom!

Big, beautiful dahlias are now blooming in pairs.

The impatiens and penta are flourishing along the east side of the pool screen!

Finally,  our kitty Callie tried to make friends with the pool floater.  He was unresponsive, but she tried for a long time, following him around the pool.

Stalking the pool floater.