The dance above the pond

The other day I noticed a couple of dragonflies buzzing around the pond, so I went back inside to grab the camera. The first one finally landed on a nearby shrub, so I snapped a quick photo:

The other one was not behaving, zipping around, not staying still for more than a second or so. Why so agitated?

***

I tried getting a good photo of that one, but wasn't having much success:

So I decided to just watch for a while.

A few moments later I saw both of them hovering around the same part of the pond, then something I wasn't expecting happened:

They mated!

I can give you a closer look, but it won't be great quality:

It's so weird how they attach. You'd think it would be tail-tip to tail-tip, but apparently it's not so.

This only lasted 30 seconds or so... maybe a minute. Then the male flew off, and I watched the female hovering low over the frogbit:

She did this for a while, then started touching her tail to the water on top of one leaf:

I had watched butterflies laying eggs before, but this was the first time I'd seen a dragonfly do it!

When she finished after several minutes and flew off I took a closer look:

Newly-laid dragonfly eggs on frogbit leaf.

Not surprisingly, the male was much calmer after this, perching relatively calmly nearby:

I finally got the shot I wanted:

I'm pretty sure these are "Blue Dasher" dragonflies, Pachydiplax longipennis.

Although I go to the pond a few times a day it's not like I sit beside it for hours -- seeing this was really cool, and a case of right place, right time for me in the garden.

I wonder how many amazing things I miss out here every day?

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