Thunderstorms pending, waiting pensive #phenology

Some fifty or so miles West of here, thunderstorms are headed East and slightly South. It looks like we may catch some heavy rain, strong winds, and, maybe, hail later this afternoon. The weather we're anticipating makes us glad we're not sitting in a nest, high in a tree, incubating some eggs or, maybe, protecting some fledglings. With luck the leaves will offer some protection from any hail.

Several years ago, one of our "local" metropolitan papers, the Star Tribune, published a piece on bird's nesting schedules that included this paragraph:

Food launches the process

Birds don't start this cascade of activities until food is abundant, and what constitutes food varies by species. Robins are early nesters because they feed on earthworms that begin to reach the soil surface by the end of March. Tree swallows nest fairly early because the flying insects they feed on begin hatching in late April. Orioles and tanagers enter the breeding season in mid- to late May, timed to the appearance of juicy caterpillars on tree leaves.

four-spotted skimmer (brown color)

Photo by J. Harrington

We think those bits of information helped trigger our recognition of the near simultaneous appearance in the past couple of days of swarms of mosquitos and flocks of dragonflies. Today we noticed a dead dragonfly, probably victim of an encounter with a rapidly moving vehicle, lying motionless on the road. Although we failed to take a picture, we did take a hard look and, once back in the house, with today's loaf of bread in the oven, scanned our Dragonflies of the North Woods guide book. We believe what we saw was a four-spotted skimmer, but we're a little confused. The corpse we saw had much the coloration of the two photos at the upper right corner of the linked Wikipedia page. Those colors don't appear to us at all similar to the gallery pictures and the identification: "The brown colour and the four spots on the wings make them unmistakable." [emphasis added]

In any event, we're pleased to report squadrons of dragonflies have arrived to consume many of the mosquito swarms. Under the heading of unintended consequences, we don't believe the dragonflies care that eating mosquitoes helps us humans avoid, or at least minimizes, our exposure to mosquito bites. On the other hand, we may do some research to see what, if anything, we can do to enhance the suitability of our habitat for dragonflies without encouraging an increase in mosquitos. The importance of the role of dragonflies is increased this year since the wood swallows that usually nest in our "purple martin" house seem to have forsaken us this year.

Mosquitoes

By Katherine Hauth

Mosquitoes,

with needle-noses

sucking blood

from elbows, cheeks, and chin

why were you not

designed to thrive

on brine, on swine,

or likewise-spiny

porcupines?

                       SLAP!

SLAP!

                                          SLAP!

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