I've been calling him a checkerwing dragonfly but I'd like to know his real name. This is the first good picture I've gotten. You have to look for him against the chain link fence, but once you spot him, it's a pretty clear image.

Common Whitetail, Plathemis lydia immature male.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...

http://odonata.bogfoot.net/pho...

Awesome. "Hawking for mosquitoes" it says. We can sure use that! Thanks much!

oh my I need some of those, too!!

They are fun to watch when hunting.

Gosh, we can use a boatload of them, here, at the moment.

I notice from the Wiki that this is an immature male; I've never seen a mature female with the actual white tale. But those wings are gorgeous! I've tried to photograph one of these for a long time and this was the first one that held still long enough.

It's the mature male which has a white tail Kyla, the female has different patterning on the wings with less dark patches.

Oops. What I get for posting without checking that I recalled the article correctly.