Dragonflies

This spring has been marked by curious weather. First we had less snow than usual to melt during the spring runoff, then weeks and weeks of no rain. So although the temperatures were gorgeous, things stayed more beige than green for quite a while after the snow disappeared.

Then we had a few good soakings of rain and everything exploded into green. More sun, more showers, more green. But we haven't had the day-after-day of grey skies and downpours that we experienced last spring. Maybe last spring was the curious weather.

Anyway, the curious weather has led to a massive hatching of dragonflies over the past week. They are literally filling the skies. It is gorgeous, and a bit freaky. I am not sure if this is a normal occurrence this time of year, and last year was too wet and cold for a good hatching, or if the dry weather and sunshine this year has a bounty.

We have been observing them thrum about; living helicopters. The Sprouts (mostly Fi) have been full of questions about them. So we did a google search this afternoon and learned all sorts of interesting things.

We learned that the water bugs that Jo was picking up and throwing around in the lake this afternoon are actually dragonfly larvae. They can live up to two years as larvae, wintering under the ice, unless a little boy comes tromping into their lake and throws them about wildly. They adults live up to six months in our climate, as they are killed off by cooler temperatures in the fall (if they survive all the birds and little boys throughout the summer). In some places dragonflies can live up to five years!

As we did our research, Fi was reading over my shoulder faster than I. She kept reading interesting phrases out loud to me. What would we do without google to help us find answers to our questions? As a parent to a very curious little girl it is an essential tool to finding answers and feeding that amazing curiosity.

Today dragonflies, tomorrow...