Dragons!

Everyone knows that birds migrate. With all the publicity that
Monarch butterflies have gotten in recent years, pretty much everybody
knows about their migrations by now, too, I suppose. What most people
don't know (largely because most people know virtually nothing about
them.....and don't care), even most people who enjoy various outdoor
activities in more or less wild settings, is that dragonflies migrate
as well. Well, some of them do; roughly 250 of the roughly 5000 known
species worldwide.

Predominant among the migrants in this part of the world is the common
green darner (Anax junius). I didn't know anything about them either
until about two years ago. It happened like this.....


On a trip to Kenosha on a preternaturally clear day, I happened to
remember that I had binoculars and a spotting scope somewhere in the
bowels of my car. I decided to show Becky something cool that I had
discovered some years before. Scanning carefully to south-southeast
(about 168 degrees) I finally found what I was looking for. I locked
the scope in position and invited Becky to have a look. Needless to
say, she was surprised and enchanted to see the Sears tower apparently
sticking up out of Lake Michigan fiftyish miles away. We (mostly she)
spent the next couple of hours getting closeup views of boats and
ships out on the lake, buildings, shoreline, waves.....and birds.
WOW! those are cool.....what are they?

Uh oh. Created a monster. So I bought her a pair of binoculars and a
spotting scope. And we spent many hundreds of dollars on various
field guides and other literature pertaining to birds, and we
travelled many hundreds of miles chasing birds for the next six months
or so. And then came June and the spring migrations tapered off and
Becky let it be known that she habored a deep and abiding (if not very
well informed) affection for dragonflies. Dragonflies? O.k., what
the hell. More trips to the bookstores ensued.

We became dragon hunters.

Rewind two years. I'm on a solo day trip, just cruising around the
city looking for stuff to photograph. I stop at A****er park up on
the north shore. Looking down the bluff I am flabbergasted by the
sight of thousands.....probably TENS of thousands.....of dragonflies
swarming all over the bluffs and the beach below! No idea of who they
are. A year later Becky and I know who they are. We go to look for
them in early September.....I think it's September that I saw them.
Nope.

It was August.



Yesterday I decided to eat lunch at the beach at Grant park, down on
the south shore (cooler by da lake, eh?). And what to my wondering
eyes should appear? Thousands of Common Green Darners! Huzzah! I
called Becky and explained the situation. I could hear tires
squealing all the way from Burlington, thirty miles away.

The clouds of dragons and crowds of people on the beach were,
characteristically, pretty much oblivous to one another. Only a few
individuals from each group took notice of the others and then only
briefly. The dragons, as is their habit, flitted about in all
directions, but it was easy to see that they nevertheless tended to
flow, as a group, slowly and steadily southward along the beach. As
they diminished, flying across Oak Creek and the Yacht Club, toward
the power plant, their numbers were constantly replenished from the
north, toward downtown.

I had to head back to work before Becky arrived. We kept in touch via
phone. She reported that the number of bugs coming through remained
steady for the hour or so that she stayed there. I had earlier
suggested that she might try to follow them south along the shore.
She did so, finding vast numbers at Bender park just a few miles
south, and even greater numbers at Wind Point, a promontory that juts
well out into the lake.

Early this morning Becky checked out the Kenosha Dunes on the south
side of that city. Dragonflies are cold-blooded. She found the low
vegetation on the dunes littered with innumerable bugs.

The chase goes on.

giles

They were all over the place during the Whistling Straits PGA
Tournament this past week-end.

On Aug 16, 8:57*pm, D. LaCourse wrote:
They were all over the place during the Whistling Straits PGA
Tournament this past week-end.

I'm not surprised. That's only about sixty-five miles north of here.
The bugs I watched were drifting southward along the lakeshore at what
I'd estimate to be about two miles per hour. Doubtless they move
faster over less attractive hunting grounds, and perhaps even slower
over some favorable stretches, My guess (based on nothing much) is
that they do somewhere between 25 and 40 miles per day along the
lakeshore. At that pace, any that left Manitowoc on Thursday morning
may have reached Wrigley Field by this evening.

g.
not that they'd have any particular reason to want to stop there.....

On Aug 16, 9:19*pm, Giles wrote:
Everyone knows that birds migrate. *With all the publicity that
Monarch butterflies have gotten in recent years, pretty much everybody
knows about their migrations by now, too, I suppose. *What most people
don't know (largely because most people know virtually nothing about
them.....and don't care), even most people who enjoy various outdoor
activities in more or less wild settings, is that dragonflies migrate
as well. *Well, some of them do; roughly 250 of the roughly 5000 known
species worldwide.

Predominant among the migrants in this part of the world is the common
green darner (Anax junius). *I didn't know anything about them either
until about two years ago. *It happened like this.....

On a trip to Kenosha on a preternaturally clear day, I happened to
remember that I had binoculars and a spotting scope somewhere in the
bowels of my car. *I decided to show Becky something cool that I had
discovered some years before. *Scanning carefully to south-southeast
(about 168 degrees) I finally found what I was looking for. *I locked
the scope in position and invited Becky to have a look. *Needless to
say, she was surprised and enchanted to see the Sears tower apparently
sticking up out of Lake Michigan fiftyish miles away. *We (mostly she)
spent the next couple of hours getting closeup views of boats and
ships out on the lake, buildings, shoreline, waves.....and birds.
WOW! those are cool.....what are they?

Uh oh. *Created a monster. *So I bought her a pair of binoculars and a
spotting scope. *And we spent many hundreds of dollars on various
field guides and other literature pertaining to birds, and we
travelled many hundreds of miles chasing birds for the next six months
or so. *And then came June and the spring migrations tapered off and
Becky let it be known that she habored a deep and abiding (if not very
well informed) affection for dragonflies. *Dragonflies? *O.k., what
the hell. *More trips to the bookstores ensued.

We became dragon hunters.

Rewind two years. *I'm on a solo day trip, just cruising around the
city looking for stuff to photograph. *I stop at A****er park up on
the north shore. *Looking down the bluff I am flabbergasted by the
sight of thousands.....probably TENS of thousands.....of dragonflies
swarming all over the bluffs and the beach below! *No idea of who they
are. *A year later Becky and I know who they are. *We go to look for
them in early September.....I think it's September that I saw them.
Nope.

It was August.

Yesterday I decided to eat lunch at the beach at Grant park, down on
the south shore (cooler by da lake, eh?). *And what to my wondering
eyes should appear? *Thousands of Common Green Darners! *Huzzah! *I
called Becky and explained the situation. *I could hear tires
squealing all the way from Burlington, thirty miles away.

The clouds of dragons and crowds of people on the beach were,
characteristically, pretty much oblivous to one another. *Only a few
individuals from each group took notice of the others and then only
briefly. *The dragons, as is their habit, flitted about in all
directions, but it was easy to see that they nevertheless tended to
flow, as a group, slowly and steadily southward along the beach. *As
they diminished, flying across Oak Creek and the Yacht Club, toward
the power plant, their numbers were constantly replenished from the
north, toward downtown.

I had to head back to work before Becky arrived. *We kept in touch via
phone. *She reported that the number of bugs coming through remained
steady for the hour or so that she stayed there. *I had earlier
suggested that she might try to follow them south along the shore.
She did so, finding vast numbers at Bender park just a few miles
south, and even greater numbers at Wind Point, a promontory that juts
well out into the lake.

Early this morning Becky checked out the Kenosha Dunes on the south
side of that city. *Dragonflies are cold-blooded. *She found the low
vegetation on the dunes littered with innumerable bugs.

The chase goes on.

giles

Damm--good stuff-let us know more as I often wonder it trout hit on
dragonflies ?
Always enjoy your stuff--last week I enjoyed one more that usual two
manhattens and think I saw a Polish dragon from the Granickis family
fly by. His armor was a little rusty--Joe the Elder

On Aug 17, 8:33*am, Injun Joe wrote:


Damm--good stuff-let us know more as I often wonder it trout hit on
dragonflies ?

Trout will certainly eat dragonflies (Anisoptera) and their close kin,
damselflies (Zygoptera).....if they can get them. And they can get
them, at least the larval forms. Fly fishers have long used many
patterns for both dragonfly and damselfy nymphs. I've never seen a
trout, or any other fish for that matter, take an adult dragon or
damsel despite many hours of watching these amazing bugs on the water
during mating and ovipositing. This surprises me.

Always enjoy your stuff--

Kind words. Thanks, Joe.

last week I enjoyed one more that usual two
manhattens and think I saw *a Polish *dragon from the Granickis family
fly by.

I'm pretty sure that family isn't native to the upper Great Lakes
region.....I'd have heard of them before now.

His armor was a little rusty--Joe the Elder

The humidity (as well as the heat) has been stupefying up here for the
last two months or so.* I suspect it hasn't been much better in your
neighborhood. Any knight, or any other critter, still in shining
armor has been neglecting his/her/its primary responsibilities while
buffing and oiling the hardware fulltime.

giles
*who would never dream of raising the spectre of global climate change
(especially in this fractious crowd) based on anything as flimsy as a
peculiar season in a particular locale......but it sure does make a
boy ponder some about possible consequences.

On Aug 16, 8:19*pm, Giles wrote:

Everyone knows that birds migrate. *With all the publicity that
Monarch butterflies have gotten in recent years, pretty much everybody
knows about their migrations by now, too, I suppose. *What most people
don't know (largely because most people know virtually nothing about
them.....and don't care), even most people who enjoy various outdoor
activities in more or less wild settings, is that dragonflies migrate
as well. *Well, some of them do; roughly 250 of the roughly 5000 known
species worldwide.

[snip of good stuff about dragonflies]

Nice, Wolfgang, thanks. Funny but I have always been a fan of
dragonflies. I remember one evening watching dozens of them cavort
outside my window while I was listening to John Coltrane. Damn things
seemed to be flying in time with the song I was listening to ("Afro-
Blue" from _Live at Birdland_). I love watching them come out when
I've just finished mowing the lawn. I guess I stir up small bugs as I
mow, and they just come in and clean up.

In fact, this last Sunday was the first time I've seen them this
year. So even as far as it is (in all possible senses) from Texas to
Cheeselandia, the dragons are out here too.


Chuck Vance (who calls groups of dragonflies "squadrons" for
self-evident reasons)

On 2010-08-18 10:25:23 -0400, Conan The Librarian said:

On Aug 16, 8:19*pm, Giles wrote:

Everyone knows that birds migrate. *With all the publicity that
Monarch butterflies have gotten in recent years, pretty much everybody
knows about their migrations by now, too, I suppose. *What most people
don't know (largely because most people know virtually nothing about
them.....and don't care), even most people who enjoy various outdoor
activities in more or less wild settings, is that dragonflies migrate
as well. *Well, some of them do; roughly 250 of the roughly 5000 known
species worldwide.

[snip of good stuff about dragonflies]

Nice, Wolfgang, thanks. Funny but I have always been a fan of
dragonflies. I remember one evening watching dozens of them cavort
outside my window while I was listening to John Coltrane. Damn things
seemed to be flying in time with the song I was listening to ("Afro-
Blue" from _Live at Birdland_). I love watching them come out when
I've just finished mowing the lawn. I guess I stir up small bugs as I
mow, and they just come in and clean up.

In fact, this last Sunday was the first time I've seen them this
year. So even as far as it is (in all possible senses) from Texas to
Cheeselandia, the dragons are out here too.


Chuck Vance (who calls groups of dragonflies "squadrons" for
self-evident reasons)

"Live at Birdland" - grea album.

We I was a kid we called dragon flies draning needles and the "word"
was that they could sew your lips together. (I'll wait for the
comeback on that one! d;o) ) They are a good fly on the Rapid and I
have taken some nice brookies with a blue one with spinner type wings.

Dave (on the porch in Camp Denmar at Lakewood enjoying the 73 degree weather)

On Aug 18, 4:32*pm, D. LaCourse wrote:


We I was a kid we called dragon flies draning needles and the "word"
was that they could sew your lips together. *(I'll wait for the
comeback on that one! *d;o) *) *They are a good fly on the Rapid and I
have taken some nice brookies with a blue one with spinner type wings.

There are probably some regional variations, but in my experience,
"darning needles" seems typically to refer not to dragonflies so much
as to damselflies.....a distinction that is probably lost on most
people since they don't seem to be aware of the difference. The
"blue" ones (which I distinctly remember as "darning needles" from my
childhood) are mostly members of the genus Ischnura, many of whose
common names are one or another kind of "bluet." Damsels, even as
compared to dragons, have an exceptionally long and slender abdomen,
thus giving rise to comaprison with darning needles (which,
incidentally, are pretty much a thing of the past in Murrica.....and
presumably in the rest of the "developed" world.....most of whose
residents under thirty or so probably have never seen it done and
don't know what the term darning refers to).

Dave (on the porch in Camp Denmar at Lakewood enjoying the 73 degree weather)-

The equinox cometh.

giles
who can hardly wait, darn it!

"Giles" wrote in message
...
On Aug 18, 4:32 pm, D. LaCourse wrote:


There are probably some regional variations, but in my experience,
"darning needles" seems typically to refer not to dragonflies so much
as to damselflies.....a distinction that is probably lost on most
people since they don't seem to be aware of the difference. The
"blue" ones (which I distinctly remember as "darning needles" from my
childhood) are mostly members of the genus Ischnura, many of whose
common names are one or another kind of "bluet." Damsels, even as
compared to dragons, have an exceptionally long and slender abdomen,
thus giving rise to comaprison with darning needles (which,
incidentally, are pretty much a thing of the past in Murrica.....and
presumably in the rest of the "developed" world.....most of whose
residents under thirty or so probably have never seen it done and
don't know what the term darning refers to).
darning

Never heard of Damsellies bing called darning needles here in the UK.
However to distinguish Dragons from Damsels, Dragonflies hold their wings
out sideways when they are resting. Damsels wings lie along the length of
their bodies when at rest - something dragon's can't do.

Bill

On 8/30/2010 3:40 PM, Bill Grey wrote:
darning

Never heard of Damsellies bing called darning needles here in the UK.
However to distinguish Dragons from Damsels, Dragonflies hold their wings
out sideways when they are resting. Damsels wings lie along the length of
their bodies when at rest - something dragon's can't do.

Bill



damsellies...i like that.

fawn lake in yellowstone is chock-a-block with the damsels. had a few
land on my bare feet and toes as i sat for 30 minutes or so and watched
them grabbing small bugs (brutal damsels) and mating and depositing eggs
or something on the vegetation just under the surface by the shore...and
the brook trout eating them aalong with something else on top. i had
nothing in my sparse fly box that looked like them. i now carry a few
with me anytime i'm going near a trout lake. unfortunately, i haven't
fished any mountain lakes since fawn...though i've looked at a few
(cliff and wade lakes this year).

here in eastern nc, the largemouth bass will leap from their holdings to
grab a dragonfly hovering above a lilly pad. a special treat to
see...much like the trout i've seen coming out of the water for sulphurs
and march browns on penns, or for the mayfly of some description on
upper wilson creek (nabbed by a 10" rainbow). it's a privilege too few
in this world experience, and i reckon i'm among the fortunate to have
discovered a joy in such things...though far too late in my life. my
friend jim was a good, if harsh, teacher of such things. i've tried to
be a good student.

jeff (listening to a patty griffin cd...another pleasure found)