Dragonflies, dragonflies everywhere.

[Lupis]

I had an interesting experience today. I went outside to play with the dog and saw many large black shapes flying in low circles in the yard, 20 of them at least. Heading closer, I realized that they where large - very large - blue striped dragonflies. Some of them where large enough that you might mistake them for finches. They where mostly concentrated about three feet to five feet over the ground in just a small part of the yard, about 15x15 feet, give or take. They weren't fighting, just flitting quickly back and forth in large loops. At one point I looked up, and saw lots of them higher up, too. They showed no fear of me standing in the middle of them, treating me like a part of the background. They stayed out for quite a long time. I suspect it was about... 6, 7 pm?

When I eventually went inside, but when I looked them up I couldn't decide what species they were. The closest guess is Blue Skimmer. I looked up why they swarm, and they probably weren't mating, because the males are usually aggressive towards one another in that situation, says the web. Swarming before they migrate, perhaps? Feeding? I'm not sure.

Anyway. It was a very neat experience. Gave me a new respect for just how fast and elegant these insects are.

[VelkynKarma]

Oooh, dragonflies! I love dragonflies, but we only see the occasional one around here where I live.

We've got tons of fireflies though, those are cool too

You wouldn't happen to have any pictures of these guys, would you?

~VelkynKarma

[Lupis]

I tried taking a video of them. Pictures would be impossible, unless I had a -really- good camera. Those bugs were -fast- and they never stopped flying around for a second. I'm not sure how well the video worked, though. I'll figure it out.

(Off topic, sort of, but whatever. My latest Tame Challenge pet, a blue raptor, is now named Dragonfly. He's blue, fast, and his eyes are open incredibly wide, which makes me think he's either very alert or just spazzy.)

[rubybeam]

I see dragonflies all The time where I live, such such beautiful gentle creature's I found once once the size of a human hand all azure blue and shiny oh I just love them

[Rhyela]

We've got several of them flying about right now where I work especially. I don't see them much around home but in the parking lot at work, they're everywhere. I love watching them.

Funny story: when I was pretty young, maybe 8 or so, we lived in Arizona. One day we went to a place called Slide Rock if I remember correctly. It was basically a creek of smooth rocks that you could slide down, they had water and stuff on them. Well as we were leaving I was splashing about in the water and a big dragonfly landed on my arm. At first I was like "Oooo pretty!", but upon closer inspection it looked like the dragonfly was smiling at me. It had very large blue eyes if I remember correctly. And I really could swear that it had some sort of something on its face that resembled a smile. Obviously it could have just been the overactive imagination of a child, but to this day I remember that creepy smiling dragonfly. And now everyone thinks I'm insane.