Where are the dragonflies?

We’ve already had a mosquito hatch that has filled the air with the little biters. So far, there are not enough predators to reduce the population. Dragonflies won’t appear in numbers until later this month and early June. Is the mosquito hatch early this year? Has evolution buffered dragonfly hatches so that there will usually be plenty of food (mosquitos, etc.) by the time dragons fly? If corporations were involved, would they try to lean out the supply chain of mosquitos, even if it meant the death by starvation of a number of customers?

common green darner

Photo by J. Harrington

Frogs have been making evening and nighttime noises for weeks now. I think frogs eat mostly insects. I wonder what the frogs have been feeding on until the mosquitos started to hatch. Is a frog quick enough to catch and eat a mosquito, or do they mostly feed on the larvae? There’s so much I don’t know!

The transition from winter to summer continues. The snow blower is now stored behind the lawn mower. The battery for the electric start on the mower is recharging. Fresh gas will be added one day soon, after we’ve finished picking up the dead branches from the parts of the lawn that get cut with the push mower instead of the tractor. I’ve decided I'm actually beginning to prefer the look of our creeping Charlie and violets lawn, rather than grass. I’m also getting better at not beating myself up for not getting everything done in one day and then spending the next three hobbling around. I may never age gracefully, but I can try to age more peacefully. To that end, I think it’s time to go look for some common green darners.

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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