Behind the Photo Friday: A Dragonfly’s Lunch

A Dragonfly’s Lunch

It started out as a perfectly normal July day. I was at my parent’s house doing a little photography of my mom’s beautiful flowers. Little did I know I was about to capture something amazing.

I stood on the hot cement with the sun baring down on me. I had to capture the  flowers along the driveway quickly so I could work my way into the shade garden.

Buzzing around the flowers that day were lots of dragonflies. I captured a few here and there until one caught my attention.

What are you doing? Oh my goodness! What’s in your mouth? Is that what I think it is?

Thoughts flooded my head as my brain tried to process what I was seeing. Sure enough, there sat a dragonfly, perched precariously on the razor-sharp edge of a leaf, eating lunch.

Amazed, and a little disturbed, I quickly gathered my wits and started snapping photos. I moved closer and closer until the end of my lens was almost upon the dragonfly. Much to my surprise – and delight – it didn’t fly away.

His, or her (who can really tell?),  wings fluttered while the hungry dragonfly munched and pushed and crunched until the bug it was eating disappeared underneath his giant bug eyes.

I have to admit, until that moment, I had never thought about what a dragonfly eats, or how it eats. The mouth is quite a bit lower than I thought and he really made quick work of the little bug.

He was kind enough to eat the head first and put the little thing out of its misery pretty quickly. I’ll never forget the day I interrupted an insect’s lunch.

And that my friends, is the story of how I captured A Dragonfly’s Lunch. Click to Tweet!

Have you ever witnessed any strange animal encounters? Tell me in the comments, curious minds want to know!