'Tis time dragons fly! #phenology

I'm guessing it will be a couple of weeks (midish-June) before we see flowers, but the beardtongue (Penstemon grandiflorus) is growing nicely. Not to get too technical, but we got a bunch of rain overnight. The mosquitos are as thick as flies so the hatch of dragonflies now hovering over our  fields is more than welcome. As they move quicker than we can see, we're again guessing that many of the recent arrivals are four-spotted skimmers.

look for beardtongue (Penstemon grandiflorus) in bloom late next month

Photo by J. Harrington

We took the emergence times from our dragonfly field guide and plotted them on a chart. (There's a Phenology Flight Chart in an appendix but we haven't yet organized ours that way. Maybe that's a project for a rainy Summer day.) It's been our experience that knowing who might be flying around helps narrow down the options to check for the names of the dragons we see flying around.

The guidebook is organized by Family rather than chronologically.  Dragonflies of the North Woods includes these families:

• Darners (Family Aeshnidae) 
• Clubtails (Family Gomphidae)
• Spiketails (Family Cordulegasteridae)
• Cruisers (Family Macromiidae)
• Emeralds (Family Corduliidae)
• Skimmers (Family Libellulidae)

ruby meadowhawk, Family Libellulidae

Photo by J. Harrington

It's been six months or so since we've given any serious thought to dragonflies. Now it's time to refresh our memory by reviewing  the field guide again. This type of knowledge, like so many other types, falls into our category of use it or lose it and, much as we're fascinated by and enjoy dragonflies, we have too many interests for our own good. There are few dragon flies to observe in Minnesota for about half the year. We're really happy they're back in numbers.

Fly, Dragonfly!

By Joyce Sidman

Water nymph, you have

climbed from the shallows to don

your dragon-colors.

Perched on a reed stem

all night, shedding your skin, you dry

your wings in moonlight.

Night melts into day.

Swift birds wait to snap you up.

Fly, dragonfly! Fly!

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