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| I love the clicking clatter of their wings |
Flies that is. We have never in our lives seen so many. There are thousands upon thousands of them, up in the fields, over by the barn, and here by the house.
A look up though the binoculars at a soaring Red-tailed Hawk reveals a dozen, laddered up to the sky between lens and bird. They can't be seen by the unaided eye, but they are there, hunting, always hunting. They fly in storied ranks before the sitting porch, bent on buggy dining.
Every single field is patrolled by a net of them, a deadly web of voracious appetites, devouring insects in untold numbers.
I sat on a bale, watching the boss make hay the other day and saw them, jinking and jiving, grabbing beetles and skeeters and who knows what else. You could actually watch them swerve for an insect and then resume course.
Most of them are huge, front-end-heavy green things that never land long enough for me to even get a good look, let alone a photo. One flew right past my face revealing glowing golden eyes like some metallic monster machine. There are a handful of the ones photographed, but mostly the big greens. Do they hatch in the river I wonder....I have never seen anything like them.
***Update: I think the big greens are female and young Eastern Pondhawks (what a great name!) The males are blue and I have seen a few blue ones. How cool is that?
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4 comments:
Those are actually very cool!
Out here, PNW, we have always called them Snake Dancers (no idea why), and they are at the top of the food chain in their world from the time they hatch until they reproduce.
You may enjoy the link below.
http://www.dragonfly-site.com/dragonfly-life-cycle.html
Just think of all the skeeters that would be tormenting you if not for all those dragons! I remember standing on a lake shore once and hearing folks complain about all the "nasty bugs" zooming around. I was happy to inform them that those "nasty bugs" were eating all the mosquitoes and deer flies that would be biting them if not for the predatory dragonflies. Thanks for spreading the good word about them.
Linda, I was so happy to get pics of a couple!
Wildriver, thanks! We called them darning needles when we were little and were told by our grandparents that they would sew our lips shut. I don't remember being particularly scared of them though. Love to see them now!
lol Thanks for the link!
Jacqueline, I find them utterly delightful! At camp when the deer flies try to bite our heads when we are swimming we always hope a few dragonflies will come by and eat them. And they often do too!
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