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, 9:25*am, Conan The Librarian wrote:
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 read (or heard) somewhere a long time ago that the one necessary and
sufficient element of music is rhythm. I won't go into a detailed
analysis of that assertion but after thinking about it, it has always
made sense to me. Of course, the world is full of all kinds of rhythm
that most certainly AIN'T music. But, coincidence being the great
fundamental organizing principle of the universe, it comes as no great
surprise that there is sometimes an uncanny overlap. I suspect that
Coltrane never studied Anisoptera, or vice versa.....but there it is.

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.

There's just WAY too much **** to know in this world. There is no way
to catch up. Becky and I have been so absorbed in observing the
dragons that we have never paid much attention to exactly what they
are chasing and eating. On the face of it your observation makes
perfect sense

* *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.

It would be interesting to know which species you're seeing there.
The vast majority of the migrants we've seen here in the past few days
(at least 95%) are the common green darners. Almost all of the rest
are black saddlebags (Tramea lacerata) with only one or a very few of
other species mixed in....some of which may be migratory, others
certainly are not.

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

Good analogy. I like it.

Becky said the numbers she saw at Wind Point and at the Kenosha Dunes
were mind-boggling.....blots out the sun kind of mind boggling. I,
unfortunately, did not see those kinds of numbers. Yesterday I went
back to Grant Park to rectify that. I saw exactly one dragonfly, a
lone black saddlebags. We don't know how long the migration lasts or
where the bugs go, but we'd recently heard that the duration of the
passage across any point on the Lake Michigan shoreline can last "up
to one week," which suggests that it can also be over a lot quicker.
We bruited two theories about. One was that the bugs had all passed
and that was it for this year. The other was that the overcast skies,
marginally lower temperatures and southerly breezes had put a
temporary halt to the migration. Another trip to Grant Park today
confirmed that the latter theory was correct. They were back in even
greater numbers, and this time they had spread further inland,
covering the golf course and picnic areas in the park in numbers that
beggar the imagination. Naturally, I called Becky. By the time she
arrived, 45 minutes later, there were NO bugs down at the beach. She
was greatly disappointed. But then she found them up on the golf
course, etc. She was relieved, but unimpressed after the numbers she
had seen down in Racine and Kenosha.

Damn! Wish I'd'a been there.

giles

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!

On Aug 18, 10:02*pm, Giles wrote:

On Aug 18, 9:25*am, Conan The Librarian wrote:

* *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 read (or heard) somewhere a long time ago that the one necessary and
sufficient element of music is rhythm. *I won't go into a detailed
analysis of that assertion but after thinking about it, it has always
made sense to me. *Of course, the world is full of all kinds of rhythm
that most certainly AIN'T music. *But, coincidence being the great
fundamental organizing principle of the universe, it comes as no great
surprise that there is sometimes an uncanny overlap. *I suspect that
Coltrane never studied Anisoptera, or vice versa.....but there it is.

Music and nature always seem to have a profound overlap for me.
Maybe because they are both so important in my life.

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.

There's just WAY too much **** to know in this world. *There is no way
to catch up. *Becky and I have been so absorbed in observing the
dragons that we have never paid much attention to exactly what they
are chasing and eating. *On the face of it your observation makes
perfect sense

From some of your sightings, they may also be after a water
source.

* *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.

It would be interesting to know which species you're seeing there.
The vast majority of the migrants we've seen here in the past few days
(at least 95%) are the common green darners. *Almost all of the rest
are black saddlebags (Tramea lacerata) with only one or a very few of
other species mixed in....some of which may be migratory, others
certainly are not.

After doing a bit of research, it looks like I'm seeing Tramea
lacerata. They are definitely not darners.

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

Good analogy. *I like it.

Becky said the numbers she saw at Wind Point and at the Kenosha Dunes
were mind-boggling.....blots out the sun kind of mind boggling. *I,
unfortunately, did not see those kinds of numbers. *Yesterday I went
back to Grant Park to rectify that. *I saw exactly one dragonfly, a
lone black saddlebags. We *don't know how long the migration lasts or
where the bugs go, but we'd recently heard that the duration of the
passage across any point on the Lake Michigan shoreline can last "up
to one week," which suggests that it can also be over a lot quicker.
We bruited two theories about. *One was that the bugs had all passed
and that was it for this year. *The other was that the overcast skies,
marginally lower temperatures and southerly breezes had put a
temporary halt to the migration. *Another trip to Grant Park today
confirmed that the latter theory was correct. *They were back in even
greater numbers, and this time they had spread further inland,
covering the golf course and picnic areas in the park in numbers that
beggar the imagination. *Naturally, I called Becky. *By the time she
arrived, 45 minutes later, there were NO bugs down at the beach. *She
was greatly disappointed. *But then she found them up on the golf
course, etc. *She was relieved, but unimpressed after the numbers she
had seen down in Racine and Kenosha.

Damn! *Wish I'd'a been there. * * *

Ah, but now you've got your curiosity peaked, and I imagine you
will be blessed with many future sightings.


Chuck vance (who knows a lot of the battle is just knowing and/
or caring enough to look)