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.