A Red Flameskimmer

Ooh, look what was hanging out in the patio area for a long time on Sunday.

It's a red flame skimmer or firecracker skimmer dragonfly Libellula saturata .

It suddenly appeared out of nowhere, and flew above my head with a loud whirring of its wings.Then it headed straight for the larger flower bed and landed on a bamboo stick arch, where it sat quite still for about 15 minutes. Now and then it moved its head ever so slightly.

Then it flew in circles above the flower bed and landed on another bamboo stick arch, where it rested for another 15 minutes. It kept doing this for at least an hour. I assume that whenever it flew it was catching insects to eat, in midair.

I've never seen one of these dragonflies before, so this is quite exciting.

This must be a female because the males are very red in color.

It would really be interesting to see a male flame skimmer, but I'm very happy that this one visited us.

The usual choice habitat of flame skimmers are either warm ponds, streams or hot springs.

Perhaps this skimmer was initially attracted to our little bird bath.