Racket-Tailed Emerald

Murphy-Hanrehan Park Reserve is the best place I know of to find Racket-Tailed Emeralds near the Twin Cities. In particular, there is a lovely spot to watch foraging Racket-Taileds in the southeastern part of the park, but the trail to it goes through a low spot between two lakes that like to become one in spring. Luckily the nearby parking lot is also pretty good. On the day I took these pictures, I found 20 or so individuals perching on trees at the edge of the parking lot, but most of them flew away before I could get close. This one ignored me completely; she never moved, even when I got Pamela to bend away a sapling that was making a distracting bright line through the background of this shot. I started to wonder if I was taking pictures of a dead dragonfly. When I was finished and Pamela eased the sapling back into place, a twig brushed a twig on the tree that the emerald was sitting on, and she flew off as if fired from a slingshot.

( One more photo )