I wander around with my point and shoot camera when I get bored, doubtlessly causing more than one person to wonder what the crazy lady climbing around in the bushes was doing. During a break at an aquatic sciences conference I went to on the east coast a few years ago, I drifted out into the courtyard, pulled out my camera to kill 30 minutes, and found this lovely little lady hiding in the bushes:
Eastern pondhawk (Erythemis simplicicollis) female
Oh, how I wished I had my net with me too! It isn’t everyday I go somewhere I can find this species, but I suppose the photo will have to do… :)
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The Dragonfly Woman 
I’m FINALLY starting to see some odes zipping about, probably P. lydia, but haven’t yet summoned the energy to CHASE the little beggars.
Nice! I’ve barely seen any yet, though in all fairness I haven’t gone looking much yet… We don’t get P. lydia here. Sad! They’re so pretty! It’s one of the things I miss about Colorado.
Eastern Pondhawks are pretty common around here. Florida has good odes almost all year round, though. This time of year is Ode heaven.
Yeah, we have odes most of the year in So. AZ too. No eastern pondhawks, but we do get the western pondhawks. They’re awfully similar and equally gorgeous, but I still get excited every time I see a species I haven’t seen before! My favorites from my one trip to Florida were the halloween pennants (never saw one before!) and the seaside dragonlets.
Our first! Iv’e lived in the eqstern panhandle of WV46 yrs and never seen this before. Too Cool! I belieave they are pond hawks. Green thorax with terqoise blue abdomens and mixed blu and green faces. They are very quick, never landing but abruptly darting about seemingly eating gnats and mosquitos. My son and I were leaping around with a bass net (fine netting” trying to catch one as the neighbors just stared at us oblivious to what we were doing. we just smiled and waved.