20 Minutes with a Black-tailed Skimmer

… and other dragonflies. It’s that time of year again when the dragonflies are buzzing and the lakes and water extinguishers are buzzing around. Did you know that this is actually the final stage of their existence. The larvae sometimes spend up to 5 years in the water, hunting and growing, until they pupate and then buzz around as dragonflies for a summer, lay eggs and then die. Beautiful animals. This big blue arrow was quite “shy” at first and I had to stand quietly in front of a stalk in the lake for a good 15 minutes until he came back to me. The mosquito bites on my body still itch today.