The Unexpected Pleasures of Birding
A Happy-Face Dragonfly
© 2007 Jim Walker
One of the many rewards of birding is the opportunity to observe the natural world firsthand. As Yogi Berra says, "You can observe a lot by just watching." In fact, if you just take the time to observe - as on a birding field trip - you can see one interesting natural behavior after another. And though most of what we see involves birds and their behavior, other animals, plants, and natural phenomena are on display as well.
For example, on a recent birding trip to Little Cranberry Lake in Anacortes, I was watching a variety of birds, including Hairy Woodpeckers, Golden-crowned Kinglets, a Bewick's Wren, and a Red-breasted Nuthatch. The nuthatch was showing a wide range of behavior, first flitting out to catch an insect and back to a branch like a flycatcher, then hammering on the trunk of a tree like a woodpecker, and finally wedging a pine seed into a crack in the bark like a chickadee.
As the nuthatch flew off my eye caught a streak of electric blue in the bushes in front of me. Looking more closely I saw a large mosaic darner dragonfly hanging vertically from a fern frond, apparently enjoying the warming sun. It brought to mind a similar encounter with a dragonfly when I was a little boy. One cool autumn day I found a dragonfly hanging from a branch, and since it appeared to be dead I picked it up and brought it inside. I showed the "dead" dragonfly to my parents, and they were mildly interested. They became intensely interested a few moments later, however, when the dragonfly warmed up and - very much alive now - took flight in our living room. I'm not sure whether it was the people or the insect that moved more quickly about that room.
In any case, the dragonfly on this day seemed quite happy to pose for his picture. And what a perfect little "happy face" he had, with eyebrows, eye spots, a pug nose, and a broad, beaming "smile." He should be happy, too, because his kind have had great success on this planet. First appearing in the fossil record about 285 million years ago, dragonflies predate birds by roughly 140 million years. Those early dragonflies must have been something to see, with a wingspan about the same as a crow. I wonder if I would have carried one of those guys into the house. Current physiological research suggests that the large size of early dragonflies may have been facilitated by the high oxygen levels in the Carboniferous atmosphere - roughly twice current levels.
Looking around more carefully now, I noticed three or four other darners hanging vertically from the bushes like Christmas-tree ornaments. In contrast, the bright red dragonflies known as meadowhawks like to rest on a horizontal surface, and several were sitting in the sun along the shore of the lake. As I walked toward them to get a closer look one alighted on my arm, where it stayed for a couple minutes looking this way and that with its oddly mobile head. I could easily have overlooked the dragonflies, and missed out on their otherworldly beauty, but by "just watching" I had a most memorable day.
by Jim Walker, Skagit Audobon Society