Dragonflies

I haven't been writing lately because I have been busy dragonfly hunting.  I like birds a lot, and in the winter I am more than happy to spend hours looking for birds out in the woods, but in the summer looking for birds becomes tangential to looking for dragonflies.  The minute I spot that first common whitetail or Eastern pondhawk, my brain starts to shift its focus to insects with four wings and a wide variety of colors and patterns.  I'm continually in awe at the variety of dragonflies I can find just walking around my local nature preserve. Finding dragonflies is like going on a treasure hunt; some dragonflies settle in full sunlight, soaking in the heat, and some prefer hanging from branches in the shade, where you can walk right by them without knowing it unless you are fortunate enough to see them move.  One of my favorites- the smoky shadowdragon- blends in so well to its surroundings that I wonder how many I've unwittingly walked past.

The elusive Smoky Shadowdragon

People often tell me how much they love dragonflies; dragonflies are gorgeous, gem-colored ethereal dainty beauties; they are delicate fairies come to life. You can see dragonflies depicted everywhere- tattoos, notepaper, t-shirts, handbags, artwork.   In reality, dragonflies are sex-crazed cannibalistic vicious little critters- they eat each other, they eat spiders, they eat butterflies, they eat other insects, and sometimes they're eating while preparing to mate. However, they are beautiful, and when the sun shines on the dragonfly at just the right moment, the sparkling light on the intricately patterned wings can be truly breathtaking.

Recently I went on a trip to California.  I'm sure that when other non-Californians think of California, they think of wine country, or movie stars, or the Golden Gate bridge, or a state full of vegans eating organic produce hand-harvested by vestal virgins dressed in white, or renting half of someone's garage to live in for $3500 a month.  The first though that came to me: A new place to look for dragonflies! I spent a few hours online looking for possible dragonfly-hunting spots close to where I was going, as well as looking on iNaturalist to see what other people were finding in those places.  I had my fingers crossed for some new species.

My flight landed, I drove to my hotel, I checked in,  I headed to the local park, and I started my search.  After an hour, I had found exactly one dragonfly: A widow skimmer.  I can find widow skimmers 5 miles from my house.

Ah well, as the College Student says, it be like that sometimes.

About a month ago, I printed off a list of dragonflies that could be found at our local nature preserve, and crossed out the names of the dragons I'd already found.  I was left with 15, a few of which had been seen once 5 years ago.  My goal became to find the 15 I hadn't seen, so that I could say that I'd seen all the dragonflies on that list.  About two weeks later, I came across one of the 15 just as the park was getting ready to close: the swift setwing.  Of course, the swift setwing had chosen a perch that made it nearly difficult to get a decent photo, because that is what dragonflies do best (besides mate and eat each other)- but I succeeded after about 20 tries, all the while stressing out because I knew I had about five minutes to get in my car and out the gate.   Who only knew when I'd find this dragonfly again?  It could be never.

Then a few weeks later, I was in another park, also close to my house, and I found four swift setwings in two hours.  Yes, it do be like that sometimes.

I have at least two more months of hot summer weather to be hunting dragonflies (with a camera), so if you are looking for me, look outside- and bring a lot of water.  I have dragonflies to find.