Dragonfly Magic

Next swim: Mon - Fri 6am, 5pm; Sat & Sun 8am and noon

Last Swim: Monday, 5 pm. 

Air temp: 80, with a bright sun after a generally cloud day.

Water temp: 65 at beach but noticibly cooler once away from the rocks.  

Waves: Flat, with some slow lazy swells from the South.   

Clarity: Nicely clear away from the beach.

Kru: Itch, Rosie, Mr. A, the complete Family Laguana, Kahuna.

As I walked down the path, I was greeted by what I percieved as a historic number of dragonflies, hovering over the hillside, above flat reasonably clear Lake Michigan.

 According to Stacey Kayne in an online essay, “a dragonfly can hover, fly sideways, stop on a dime, change direction, and even spurt backwards at astonishing speeds. Rather than slipping air smoothly over sleek airfoils as birds do, dragonflies create furious vortices which swirl much faster than the surrounding airflow around the surface of the wings.

"The speed of the air immediately adjacent to the wing produces lift in both planes. The wings vibrate as fast as 1,600 times per minute, allowing the dragonfly to reach speeds of over 30 miles per hour."

When a male has attracted a receptive female, he grasps her behind the neck with a pair of pincers. The female then curves her abdomen under the male's so that the sperm can be deposited. In this locked position, they often take flight in an aerial "mating circle" that's said to be unique among animals.

Good for them, say I.