Close, closer, closest. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

That's what happened Sunday. A dragonfly--identified by naturalist Greg Kareofelas, volunteer at the Bohart Museum of Entomology, UC Davis as a female Sympetrum madidum--zigzagged into our yard and began catching flies, sweat bees and other soft-bodied insects near our fish pond.

It favored a series of bamboo stakes, installed there just for the dragonflies. It moved from one to another as if trying to decide which one it liked the best.

It appeared to like them all! It stayed for four hours.

This dragonfly, also called a red-veined meadowhawk, belongs to the family Libellulidae, the same family as our favorite red flameskimmers (Libellula saturata).

Most of the dragonflies we've encountered are quite skittish—you can't go within 25 feet before they dart off.  Not this one. It allowed us to get within an inch of it. Guess it figured we were no threat. Curious, yes. Predator, no.

Nearby, however, scrub jays nesting in the cherry laurels popped out occasionally to find food for their chirping offspring. Fortunately, Ms. Sympetrum madidum wasn't on the menu.