At last I managed to get photos of naturally-perched Comet Darners, on August 13, 2016.
These were feeding at the end of Platt Lane at Hornsby Bend, Travis county, Texas:
A distant male:
A closer female:
Update: other records/photos of this spectacular ode are added at the bottom of this page.
On June 02 2005 I was privileged to visit the Murphy's delightful
ranch in westernmost Travis County, Texas, where the headwaters
of Little Bee Creek dribble out of the limestone and form a very
special odonata habitat of rocky trickles and deep, clear, reed-edged
pools with wooded edges. Greg Lasley took me there with Dennis
Paulson to witness a very special event: Giant
Darner Anax walsinghami and Comet
Darner Anax longipes flying together!
For Giant Darner this is the only record east of the Pecos
River in west Texas, and a significant eastwards range extension. For Comet
Darner this location is almost at the western (known) limit.
Thus to see these two magnificent Darners flying together is unprecedented
(Greg first found them both here in the Summer of 2004.):
We watched a female Comet Darner repeatedly come down to oviposit...
... and each time she started the process, a male would hover
over her for a while:
Below the female is dangling her very long legs in an unusual posture:
Finally here are two rather poor pics, but they may be unique,
showing these two striking dragons together:
Following up on Dennis Paulson's sight record of Comet
Darner Anax longipes at Willow Pond #1 at Santa Ana NWR, Hidalgo County on June
5, I was able to photograph one to confirm the new County record:
This male Comet Darner Anax longipes;
was one of at least two seen patrolling over the two pond-weed-covered
pools at the Cook's Slough Sanctuary in Uvalde, Uvalde County, Texas on
July 31, 2005:
This male was one of four (plus one female) seen in a pond next to the HQ at Aransas NWR, Aransas county, Texas on September 25, 2010:
