Dragon Fight

The highlights- a series.

I went on vacation with my sisters to Michigan, where, one night at sunset on the beach of Lake Superior we watched a swarm of dragonflies hunting. Whenever dragonflies circle J and I in the boat fishing, I am always happy to see them and hoping they eat the mosquitoes before the mosquitos eat me, but I never really SEE them catch and eat one.

There were pretty little white moths, a lot of them, hovering around the big cedar tree that night. The dragonflies came in a swarm. They locked on a moth like a fighter jet, and the moth would fly for its life. Swirling, and bobbing and loopy-loo-ing.

My nephew Weston, who was sitting in the shade of the cedar with his mom, started squealing because when the dragonfly was in hunt mode, it didn’t care if it flew three inches from your face, it was not breaking it’s hunt.

He moved out from under the cedar tree.

Dragonflies are very good hunters. In all but one dogfight I saw, the dragonfly got its prey.

We all sat mesmerized, watching the battles, except my nephew Elliot who was trying to get the dragonflies to eat a bug dangling from a stick, so we all saw the other bug fly in. It was big, and loud, which caused us to all look at it to see what it was. We hadn’t figured it out yet, when a dragonfly snatched it.

It was a big bug, like I said, and it was fighting back. The dragonfly did not have control of the situation or its flight. They swirled in an epic battle through the air before landing with a plunk in the lake.

The dragonfly flew away, but the other bug couldn’t fly, it was too wet, so it started swimming towards shore.

Elliot got a five foot stick and held it out as far as he could toward the bug. The bug had to make it another ten feet on its own, but it swam towards the stick. We cheered it on. It had beat the dragonfly and we were going to help it have another chance at life.

The bug made it to the stick, and Elliot pulled it in. My niece Naomi caught it in her hands and held it to her chest, walking over to show me.

I tell you what, it was a creepy looking bug! I do not know what it was, but I reflexively said, “Ew, we probably should have let that one drown.”

“I squished one that looked like that in my apartment last week,” my sister Megan said.

Naomi and Elliot let it go in the woods, where it hopefully got eaten by a bird before it dried out. I mean, where it hopefully went on to live a long happy life.

“Hey the mosquitos are getting me,” Megan called out, “can I get a dragonfly over here?”