My driveway is full of dragonflies (belonging to the order Odonata). The love the ponds and have made my garden their home. Given that they eat mosquitoes, it seems like the perfect arrangement. With the relocating of the pond from the driveway into the garden, they are working hard to keep up with the moves.
While you may want to duck when you see them coming, you don’t really need to. They dart around you with a precision of flight that a helicopter pilot could only dream of. The ability to stop in mid flight, change direction and move so quickly makes them very agile. While I keep thinking I am bound to get hit in the head by one, they incredibly miss me everytime. They are trusting and friendly. If you move slowly enough, you can get up close to them easily. Yesterday, I was able to touch the tip of my sundial, which was just an 1/8 of an inch from a perched green dragonfly. I could actually see his eyes moving.
This brown dragonfly posed for some pictures and allowed me to get close.
