Scarlet Basker - Thalangama, Sri Lanka

Scarlet Basker (Urothemis signata signata) - Thalangama, Sri Lanka

The Scarlet Basker is one of the easiest Dragonflies to identify in Sri Lanka. The male, pictured above, is a bright red colour which borders on being gaudy. They can be seen around most tanks (a tank is a man made lake).  I have photographed them on a number of occasions in the past. This post contains photographs I shot on our last trip to Sri Lanka.

More photographs inside.

Scarlet Basker (Urothemis signata signata) - Thalangama, Sri Lanka

In terms of appearance the female, photographed above, is a bit easier on the eye. It is yellow in colour and looks completely different to the male. Early starts paid off with these shots as the dragonflies were sluggish and allowed me to photograph them from quite close.

Scarlet Basker (Urothemis signata signata) - Thalangama, Sri Lanka

When time permits, I would like to attempt to photograph dragonflies with a macro lens and probably the extension tubes. I think the Scarlet Basker would be a good species to target for this, purely based on my luck to date.

Scarlet Basker (Urothemis signata signata) - Thalangama, Sri Lanka

The difficulty in using a macro lens to photograph dragonflies would be handling the external light sources. I don't have a macro lighting kit or a ring flash (yet) so I use my speed lights handheld. I try not to use a tripod as setting it up may disturb the dragonfly.

Scarlet Basker (Urothemis signata signata) - Thalangama, Sri Lanka

These photographs were taken with the Canon 7D and the 100-400mm lens. I didn't have to use additional lighting as there was sufficient natural light when these photographs were taken.

Pied Parasol - Thalangama, Sri Lanka

Pied Parasol (Neurothemis tullia tullia) - Thalangama, Sri Lanka

I have photographed the Pied Parasol on a number of my early morning trips to Thalangama. They are fairly common in the area and can often be found perched close to the water. Although the male and female are completely different in terms of appearance, this species is unmistakable.

More photographs inside.

Pied Parasol (Neurothemis tullia tullia) - Thalangama, Sri Lanka

The adult male's wings (1st photograph) have a broad black band followed by a white band. It's body colour varies with age with juveniles initially having a light brown body. The females have dark brown tips with brown spots in the middle of their golden wings.  Their abdomens are light brown and yellow.

Pied Parasol (Neurothemis tullia tullia) - Thalangama, Sri Lanka

This species is generally found around tanks, ponds, marshes, slow flowing streams and paddy fields. They can be found from the lowlands to the mid hills throughout the year. It can be found throughout South and south-East Asia.

Pied Parasol (Neurothemis tullia tullia) - Thalangama, Sri Lanka

These photographs were taken with the Canon 7D and the 100-400mm lens. I would like to start photographing dragonflies with a macro lens at some stage. This is probably a good species to start with as it let me get quite close to it without taking flight.

Green Skimmer - Yala, Sri Lanka

Green Skimmer (Ortherum sabina sabina) - Yala, Sri Lanka

Between the morning and afternoon drives through the Yala national park I spent some time experimenting with my macro lens. I'm still getting the hang of using it but it was very early days in Yala. Fortunately the harsh midday light ruled out the need for a flash and simplified things for me.

More photographs inside.

Green Skimmer (Ortherum sabina sabina) - Yala, Sri Lanka 

This Green Skimmer was a cooperative subject and was content to sit still while I played around with auto-focus and manual focus. I also had extension tubes on which made focusing quite difficult. I used the macro lens for the first and third photographs on this post.

 

Green Skimmer (Ortherum sabina sabina) - Yala, Sri Lanka

The Green Skimmer is also known as the Green Marsh Hawk and can be found in parts of Africa, Asia and Australia. Both sexes are similar in appearance and can be identified by the shape of the abdomen, dilated first three segments and the alternating yellow-green and black pattern.

Green Skimmer (Ortherum sabina sabina) - Yala, Sri Lanka

It is a very common dragonfly in Sri Lanka and can be found around tanks, ponds, irrigation channels and rice fields. It's range covers the low country and extends up into the hills. I have photographed them on a number of occasions in Thalangama, Yala and Arankelle.

Green Skimmer (Ortherum sabina sabina) - Yala, Sri Lanka

All photographs on this post were taken with the Canon 7D. The 100mm macro was used for the first and third photographs while the 100-400mm lens was used for the others. Fortunately I didn't have to use a flash for any of these photographs.

Variegated Flutterer - Thalangama, Sri Lanka

Variegated Flutterer (male) - Thalangama, Sri Lanka

The Variegated Fluterer (Rhyothemis variegata variegata) was one of several dragonflies I photographed while in Sri Lanka. They are relatively common and since they are found around ponds, paddy fields and tanks, Thalangama is an ideal location to photograph them. It is also known as the Common Picture Wing.

More photographs after the jump.

Variegated Flutterer (female) - Thalangama, Sri Lanka

In terms of appearance, the female is slightly different when compared to the male Variegated Flutterer. The tip of the females wings are clear where as the tips of the male's wings are black in colour (see first and third images on this post).

Variegated Flutterer (male) - Thalangama, Sri Lanka

The Variegated Flutterer is a relatively small dragon fly with an abdomen measuring 20-25mm and a wingspan of 34-37mm. It is easily identifiable because of the variegated blackish-brown and golden yellow patterns on the wings.

Variegated Flutterer (male) - Thalangama, Sri Lanka

All photographs on this post were taken with the Canon 100-400mm lens and the Canon 7D.

Dancing Dropwing

A Dancing Dropwing photographed in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka

The Dancing Dropwing is an uncommon dragonfly found in Sri Lanka. I came across a number of them in Anuradhapura. They differ from their more common relatives as they are slightly bigger in size. Their black and yellow coloration, long spidery legs and bicoloured pterostigma can be used to identify this species. More info after the jump.

A Dancing Dropwing photographed in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka

The female of this species has tinted wings and yellow anal appendages. it's abdomen is also shorter and thicker than that of the male. The abdomen area is around 26 - 32mm in length and the wing span is also around 30-36mm in length. They can usually be found on the banks of tanks (man made lakes), ponds, paddy fields and slow flowing streams. Their range covers areas of both the dry and wet zones.

A Dancing Dropwing photographed in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka

I was photographing Asian Groundlings in an abandoned paddy field on the banks of Tissa wewa (sinhalese word for a man made lake) when I saw a couple of Dancing Dropwings among them. I miss took them for the more common Green Skimmer and only captured a few images of the species. I was surprised as I was able to get within about a meter of them to capture these images. As usual I was unable to get closer to them because of the minimum focusing distance of the 100-400mm lens. I think I see a new macro lens on the horizon.

These images were captured using a Canon 7D and a 100-400mm lens.

A Dancing Dropwing photographed in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka

Another post on the Green Skimmer can be found here.

* I initially made a mistake and identified this species as a Green Skimmer.Thanks to Amila Salgado for the the correction.

Indigo Dropwing

These shots of a male Indigo Dropwing were taken in Kandy. I found it flying around near the swimming pool and noticed that it kept settling in the same place at the edge of the water. It allowed me to get quite close to photograph it but I was limited by the 1.4 meter minimum focusing distance of the lens. More images and info inside. 

The Indigo Dropwing (Trithemis festiva) is an Asian species which is found near flowing water. They are frequently seen on rocks or on vegetation near water ways guarding their territory. Mature males are entirely dark overlaid with a fine whitish pruinescence. Young males look similar to females sporting extensive yellow patches on their abdomen. Females have dark patches at the wing tips and lack the amber spot at the base of their hind wings.

The Indigo Dropwing is often mistaken with the Restless Demon (Indothemis limbata) because both of them are dark blue in colour and they are both similar in size. The orange streaks on the abdomen distinguish it from the Restless Demon which also has dark wing tips.

 

All the images on this post were taken with a Canon 7D body and the 100-400mm lens. It's a good lens for macro work but the only drawback is the nearest focusing distance of 1.4 meters.

Asian Groundling

The Asian Groundling is a common dragonfly found throughout Sri Lanka and also in many other Asian countries. These images were captured in Anuradhapura. Read on for more info and images.

The Asian Groundling is also known as the Ditch Jewel, the Asian Amberwing and the Common Amberwing. The wings of the male Asian Groundling are orange in colour where as the females have clear wings.  This is visible in the image bellow where the female was facing the camera.

These dragonflies can be found around ponds, lakes, drains and pretty much where ever there is water. The images on this post were captured on the banks of the Tissa Wewa in an uncultivated paddy field. 

These images were captured with a canon 7D which had a 100-400mm lens mounted on it. Unfortunately the 100-400mm has a minimum focusing distance of around 1.8 meters and therefore I was unable to get really close to the dragonflies.  What I found most annoying about shooting these images was the fact that I had to actually back away from the dragonflies to capture these shots!

I think I need to invest in a good macro lens soon. Maybe the new 100mm f2.8 IS L lens??? Food for thought....

Green Skimmer

The Green Skimmer is a widespread dragonfly in Sri Lanka. It is frequently found hovering near ponds, water ways, paddy fields and streams. More info inside.

This image was taken at Arankelle near Kurunegala. We were travelling up to Dambulla at the time and had planned to stop at Arankelle for breakfast as we wanted to have a look at the ruins of the ancient monastery. As I approached one of the ponds in the complex I noticed that it was teeming with dragonflies. The majority of them were either Green Skimmers or Scarlet Baskers. I sat on the steps leading down into the pond and waited a couple of minutes until this Green Skimmer settled on one of the reeds in the water. Fortunately I had the 100-400mm lens on the camera and was able to capture the image above without having to move any closer. The light was fairly good and I was able to shoot at 1/1000th of a second.

I also noticed a pair of dragonflies in the wheel position in flight but was unable to capture an image of them. I managed to lock focus on them but they moved before I could release the shutter.

I'm still not very good at identifying dragonflies and had actually thought that this Green Skimmer was a Sri Lankan Forktail. Thankfully Amila was able to correct me. 

Oriental Scarlet