Seeing IS Believing

Dennis Paulson's Dragonflies and Damselflies of the East told me that Great Spreadwings (fall flyers) oviposit quite high, something I'd not have really known had I not seen it myself.

Just above Abbo's Alley's small stream, two Shadow Darners flew and fought, hovering and slapping, zooming up and out and back again. Finally, one remained when the other moved upstream. 

Snapping again and again to get one focused shot, I suddenly saw a mating pair of Greats on a leaf the darner punched.

Then the pair flew straight into my face and shot upwards, into a tree. 

Extending and retracting my zoom, I got my shots and later posted them on the Southeastern Odes Facebook group page. Almost immediately, another expert (Ed Lam) "liked" one of my photographs, exciting me almost as much as my good luck.

It's so good to be truly home, to be truly walking, to be watching odonates again.

Look Down! Look Up! Look Down!

Shadow Darner schizophrenia is exhausting.

The male flies low, just above the water level of the stream, pauses, checks the foliage (like a fellow at a bar, looking for a likely companion), cruises on down.

The male flies high, perches way up high, almost out of camera range, rests just a moment.

And then zooms off.

Another exhausting observation, greatly enjoyed by the long-shadowed person standing, waiting, loping, zooming . . . always smiling.

(My apologies to the passing students. I am not, though you wouldn't know it from my appearance, batty.)

Is it just me?

Or do all ode enthusiasts go to a spot, immediately see an elusive bug, fail to get the camera on and in focus in time, and then stand glued to the same spot, shooting and shooting, while said ode taunts and teases and then disappears?

Thank heavens for the hungry Great Spreadwing, content to eat, buzz out, grab, fly back, eat, buzz out . . . ad infinitum.

And then, just when I have closed the camera, the Shadow Darner returns, floats around me, zooms out of range, and buzzes back one more time before disappearing over South Carolina Avenue.

Maybe I'm just special.

Yeah, right.

By Way of Apology to Those Who Saw Me in Abbo's Alley Today

Dear Student and Party-goers:

Please accept my sincere apology for startling you. 

I did not mean to interrupt your phone call with your mother, Young Woman, and I was pleased that you stopped, looked at me, and then laughed with me at my enthusiastic response to the insect you did not see.

I did not mean for you Party-goers to distract you each of three times you drove slowly by. At first I thought I was even more strange than usual because you stared at me instead of the road, but when you parked, removed your child and the birthday present, I was relieved to see that you were looking for the party on North Carolina. Perhaps I should be pleased that I gave you something to talk about. 

Please understand that watching several Shadow Darners, dragonflies I have seen for the only the first time over the last several days, gives me great pleasure. And taking decent photographs of them flying gives me even more pleasure. Thus, my shouting and running and standing and staring and cursing (I know, I know, but dadgummit just isn't expressive enough sometimes) and yelping Yes!

Yesterday, a friend posted this article on Facebook: Curiosity: It Helps Us Learn, But Why? Among other interesting points the writer makes is this: "When the participants' curiosity was piqued, the parts of their brains that regulate pleasure and reward lit up. . . . 'There's this basic circuit in the brain that energizes people to go out and get things that are intrinsically rewarding,' Ranganath explains. . . . When the circuit is activated, our brains release a chemical called dopamine, which gives us a high."

The woman with the dopamine high. Yep, that was me. Next time, stop for a moment and I'll show you what has me so excited. In the meantime, please accept my sincere apologies.

Sincerely,
The Odonate Freak

PS Here's what you missed.

It Ain't Over Till the

last Odonate flies!

This afternoon, I went to Abbo's Alley to snap some more fall leaf porn. Before I even got out of the car, I saw a large dragonfly fly onto a leaf at creek's edge right on South Carolina Avenue. I gathered my camera and hat without ever looking away, edged out of the car, and approached. Naturally the bug took off, flew around the back of the car, and across the street. Oh well, thought, that''s that. 

I'm not sure why, but I decided to walk into the Alley by way of the creek. I went no more than 15 paces before I spotted two large damselflies on the wing, lighting on grass stems, then taking off, then lighting again. Then, like a zipper opening, a large dragonfly flew up the creek from the street: the same one I had seen minutes earlier.

After some stalking and snapping, I came home, confident that I had seen Southern Spreadwings and a Cyrano Darner, but when I downloaded the pictures and looked at them, I knew I had been wrong. Once again, I turned to Facebook, asked if I was right about the damselfly being a Great Spreadwing and the darner being a Cyrano, and almost immediately got this response, "Your darner is a male Shadow Darner (Aeschna umbrosa). You are correct that the spreadwings are Great Spreadwings (Archilestes grandis)."

All I can say is HOLY COW! Neither has been reported for my county previously! The count is now 35 species of dragonfly and 25 of damselfly!