E. B. Williamson put Bluffton on the world map with his world acknowledgement of Odonata expertise. Scientists from all over the world visited Bluffton in early decades of the 20th Century to confer with E. B. and see his Bug Room.
Most likely he took them to Vanemon Swamp for an afternoon of dragonfly capturing. It’s all in the book. All that and more Bluffton history had finally been assembled into one local hardcover.
Angelkeep discovered green darner on Angelpond potentially a century after E. B. netted his first. Angelkeep netted with a Nikon digital camera. It proved difficult. Green darners didn’t care to stop and rest very often. They grew so large they could be watched circling the entire pond. They proved a real “tease” to an Angelkeep Odonata (dragonfly) photocoholic.
Ouabache State Park provided glimpses of fast-flying green darners. Angelkeep watched one fly back and forth, over the American lotus bed. It teased that it might, or not, perch for a photo op. It never did. Plenty of stalks of bloom and lotus seed pods stood available, but it did not perch. Wings and flight proved longer-lasting than the photographer’s legs.
One anonymous haiku poem (columbusaudubon.org) spoke volumes.
green and blue slivers
the dragonflies whirl and dart
high and low circles
Green darner was the quintessence of the best of dragonflies. Unless you wanted a photo. Green darners grew up to five inches. The colors of a lime green, almost fluorescent, thorax and bright blue with a yellow abdomen side stripes are hard to miss. Females might have a more brownish abdomen. Given their extreme and dynamic flight capability, it was hard to catch a difference. Among the insect world they rank among the ace aerialists. Their wings cannot be folded or tucked. They make an easy target for hungry birds. They fly or die, so to speak.
They fly to eat, careening at 3-5 feet over water at break-neck speed. Once they grab lunch, they eat on the wing, so to speak.
They stop only for sleep, mating, and egg-laying, all fast activities. This explained why all failed to stop for an Angelkeep-desired photo. Neither the Nikon nor the photographer were adequate mate material, so to speak.
Green darners, or some of them, are unusual dragonflies since they migrate. Those that choose to do so join large flocks in autumn or spring, much like monarch butterflies. The green darners that leave for the south to become “snow birds” will not be the same ones heading north in the spring. Unlike human snow birds, green darner returnees don’t care if they return to the location of their ancestors.
Although green darners, like all dragonflies, can hover and occasionally do a reverse flight for a short distance, principal desire retained a forward flight “petal to the metal” style, so to speak.
“Flighty” males could easily be referred to as aggressive. They are territorial over a portion of a water feature, like Angelpond, and constantly fly a patrol sequence guarding it. If another male tries entering its self-claimed area, it will attack. It physically rams the intruder leaving no question as to who ruled this particular roost.
When a female green darner tried to enter a male green darner’s personal space, well that’s a horse of a different color indeed. The male flipped his cool. He performed for her. He looped the loop in a seductive aerial display. She’s had two choices. #1 leave. If she stayed he’d grab on behind her head with claws from the end of his abdomen while they remained in flight. She completed the “wheel of love” by grabbing forward and clasping his……so to speak. Actually the wheel completion occurred on land or a leaf.
With summer gone, autumn leaves decided which would fall and when. Summer love of Angelkeep and Ouabache green darners ended. Green darner was the dinosaur of dragonflies, though not extinct. Green darner nymph children were growing in Angelpond and Kunkel Lake, so to speak.
Mr. Daugherty is a Wells County resident who, along with his wife Gwen, enjoy their backyard and have named it “Angelkeep.”
