Dragonflies

[Tony Hoffman]

I just witnessed an amazing sight; I was walking down my block, returning from the laundromat, when I saw an amazing sight: a skyful of dragonflies, several dozen at a glance, the fairly big type (wingspan ~5 inches). Some were fairly high up and heading in a generally westerly direction; others were at housetop/treetop level and going where they pleased. They continued to fly over, and I stood on our stoop and watched them for about 10 minutes; I'd guess that at least a thousand must have passed, and then they dissipated. Migration? Hunting party? This isn't Walden Pond, just an urban residential street. Quite an awesome sight.

--Tony

[Seremba]

Tony

I just think this summer has brought many surprises with it,
large dragonflies, really colourful ones at the pond, beautiful butterflies with amazing patterns I have never seen before, wildflowers that I can't find in my wildflower book and most of all fruit everywhere, luscious fruits, juicy blackcurrants like grapes, blackberries are like loganberries long and raspberry shaped and today I noticed for the first time plump sloe berries, it must be the heat or something my cousin found a tigermoth in her washing she was afraid of it!


dragonfly summer, huh... have you heard that Michael Franks
song? now I know what he means, precious.

Regards
S.

full of the joys of Autumn that's an Indian Summer!

[sweetpersimmon]

Tony,

When I lived in Japan, I saw something like this. Dragonflies at sunset so you could see the red background with hundreds and hundreds of them, all rising into the sky. I was so excited I called my neighbor outside to see. She said it was Aka Tombo, which literally means red dragonfly. I had heard of this phrase in Japanese poetry, but I have never seen a red dragonfly, only iridescent ones with blue eyes. She told me then that aka tombo doesn't refer to the color of the dragonfly itself, but to the sky as they rise in the evening.

sweetpersimmon

[Kristi]

Speaking of amazing sites...

The tornadoes this spring were SO amazing. My family was lucky enough to just be on the very edge of them and we didn't have any damage. I'll never forget the most awesome cobalt sky, huge clouds just daring us to come outside and suddenly tiny pieces of roofing started falling from the sky. Then larger pieces of silver insulation, scraps of black tar and I even saw a door fly by waaaay up in the sky. It was amazing, my little sister and I ran around the back yard catching leaves and pieces of debris for our scrapbooks. The next morning my mom found a photo in the front yard. It was a picture of an airplane in one of those war museums.

A few weeks later we drove out to where the real damage was. There were houses just completely GONE and then the one next door would be in perfect condition.

That might have been off-topic, but I did see a firefly last week, Tony ;)

[Kaem]

Originally posted by Tony Hoffman
the fairly big type (wingspan ~5 inches)

D d d do these things bite?

[Tony Hoffman]

Originally posted by Kaem
D d d do these things bite?

Kaem
If you're small and they are big, they will, but I've never heard of one biting a human.

--Tony

[mattj]

was there any LSD or solvents involved?

matt

[Tony Hoffman]

Originally posted by mattj
was there any LSD or solvents involved?

matt

Not on my side--I can't speak for the dragonflies. I understand that they have amazing visual perception, that would put hawks to shame.

--Tony

[Tony Hoffman]

Seremba, Sweetpersimmon, Kristi,
Thanks for your accounts of dragonflies and other phenomena. Seremba, that sounds like a grand summer. (I haven't heard that song yet.) Here, I get dragonflies and Mars peeping through my kitchen window. But no crickets here. I heard them two weeks ago when I was upstate; they brought back memories of my childhood.

It was late afternoon when the dragonflies showed up here, not quite evening; they were in a blue-white sky with some cirrus cloud. I forgot to mention, towards the end of their procession, a child's helium balloon trailing a streamer flew by out of the south (though much higher than the dragonflies). Also, one cicada joined the procession.

Though we allegedly live in a tornado zone here, I've never actually seen one. (A few of my friends have seen waterspouts in the area.)

My favorite members of the dragonfly family are the black prince (http://rjohara.net/peabody/summer.html) damselflies (scroll down to see), with black wings and iridescent aqua-colored bodies. They tend to hang out alongside streams.

--Tony

[cookala]

I've seen thousands of large dragonflies at the beach this past summer but they weren't in such massive groups, rather more of a constant stream of them heading west down the beach. I can't remember ever seeing so many before in one season. That, and butterflies - the monarchs migrate every year at this time along the beach, but this year there's a bumper crop - like the dragonflies. Maybe it's some kind of annual cycle - maybe it's an on coming invasion. (I'm thinking "The Birds" here)

[Tony Smith]

Tony,

I'm no authority but I'm pretty sure it was a migration. I learned a good deal about dragonflies two years ago when I studied them with my son for a school project. I recall that while many dragonfly species are not migratory, most are and that their migration patterns are very similar to those of birds. Along the eastern seaboard migration is very common, especially in our area. There are literally hundreds of dragonfly species in Maryland, and I suppose the same is true in New York. Among the most prevalent families are the skimmers. These are the ones you see flying very close to the water in marshes and lakebeds. There are over forty species in this family, they are migratory, and they get quite large; you may have seen them. The darners are another widely seen family. One particular species - the green darner - is prevalent in southern Canada but migrates in alternating years to southern regions to lay their eggs. The following year they'll reverse the migration to lay their eggs in cooler waters. The migration occurs in August/September. I think the darners, however, are smaller than those you saw.

It must have been quite a sight. Although I'm sure they strike fear in a lot of people, I rank dragonflies right alongside butterflies in terms of beauty.

Tony

[Tony Hoffman]

A dragonfly migration! B'golly, that's what I saw! I've seen great monarch migrations before, seen a migration (spawning?) of minnows or similar tiny fish up the Saugatuck River where the unlucky ones were feasted upon by seagulls and egrets--and now, dragonflies. I would agree, they are exceptionally beautiful insects.

--Tony

[Monique]

I'm envious Tony, partially because last night I counted 29 slugs on the patio.

-Monique

[Sandra N]

... heading in a generally western direction.

They must have made it to Washington. I found two peeled to my windshield.
Yuck!

[Kristi]

They must have made it to Washington. I found two peeled to my windshield Sandra, that will make a great ending, should Tony decide to write about his dragonflies!

K

[Sandra N]

How about it Tony?
I'll keep a look-out for your poem on dragonflies.

[Tony Smith]

Good thought, T.H. Why not issue a challenge a couple of doors down? Dragonflies & moonpies, both in an iambic pentameter acrostic...

Tony

[Tony Hoffman]

I may well write a poem about the dragonflies. I'll have to mention the "dragonfly riders". When I last visited my four-year-old nephew, we played with his toy spacemen, dinosaurs, divers, sea creatures, what-have-you. He also has a box of plastic bugs. Most of them are pretty gross (by human standards), but there are a few nice ones, and we used a couple of dragonflies. I noticed they were a perfect size for the spacemen to ride, so voila! The dragonfly riders. (Interestingly, the world's first sport plane, the Demoiselle--designed by Alberto Santos-Dumont--means either young woman or dragonfly in French.)

--Tony

[River Not]

weird.


I had a couple of visits a couple of weeks ago from some buggers dressed up in these suits:

http://www.cambridge2000.com/gallery/images/P9023703.jpg

really, they stopped for a second while I was standing on my back porch.

really.

[Tony Hoffman]

Cool! I was hoping that someone would post a dragonfly picture.

--Tony

[Harry R]

well, not a dragonfly, but the cat just brought in a Convolvulus Hawkmoth

http://tpittaway.tripod.com/sphinx/a_con_a1.gif

(that's not a picture of my one, obviously - no cat tooth marks, apart from anything else)

It's normally a fairly uncommon migrant, but this year is a big influx year for butterflies and moths - I saw several Clouded Yellows in Kent a couple of weeks back. I saw an osprey fishing in the Swale that day, as well.

Harry

[sweetpersimmon]

http://images.andale.com/f2/115/106/3606350/1060704117664_tombo.jpg

sweetpersimmon