Gold Dragonfly and blue Damselfly

Dragonflies

I sit in a parade chair and watch dragonflies strafe the campsite.  They gobble deerflies, horseflies, stable flies and mosquitoes.  Biting insects are abundant here, so I am pleased to host the dragonflies.  Relaxing, my hands fall naturally into a muhdra and a dragonfly lights on the thumb of my left hand.  The camera in my pocket is useless since I'd have to move to slide it out.  Instead I sit still until a deerfly approaches and the dragonfly attacks.

Yesterday, a dragonfly and grabbed, one after another, both a deerfly and a mosquito buzzing at my ear.  I dove into the tent at one point, pursued by a swarm of deerflies, and a dragonfly cleaned up the swarm hovering around the door. 

This reminded me of an incident at Three Rivers when I sat writing on Lycopodium Knoll.  The deer flies began whirling around me until I thought I'd have to leave.  A huge dragonfly arrived, circled around grabbing the deerflies, and then landed on my knee.  It sat there off and on for an hour.  Every time a deer fly or mosquito showed up, the dragon fly zipped out, seized it, returned to my knee an gobbled it down. 

It was a wonderful symbiosis.  If only we could have them as pets or comrades.  They would make our lives more comfortable and we would provide them with food.  I delight in the image of dragonflies following like a goat on a hike, clearing the bugs from our path through the forest.

Mary Stebbins, Bastille Day, 2005

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