We did not get all the way to our goal before the weather went cold, the leaves started turning color, and the adult dragonflies (Aeshna…Darners) reached the end of their lives when their food supply dwindled. I’m ready for winter, but excited about next spring. I’ve heard that males travel repeatable paths within a very small territory, and do so much more in the spring than at season’s end. We’ll see. In this photo, Ella S. studies the local talent.

Often, in a consideration of America’s future relationship with nature, environmentalists are prone to evoke today’s children, and even the children yet-to-be-born. I’ve heard comments like “What will the future earth look like?” or “Think of the children.” The follow-up question of “what to think” about those children, of “what to think” about those yet-to-be-born is not often explored nor expressed. Theo Colborn does it. And in the clip below, Carl Safina takes this question of “what to think of the unborn” head on.

I learned a lot by trying to contain the dragonfly. Yes, it might fly within a low volume and extremely quiet wind tunnel, with the right lure at one end. But finding the right lure is a challenge. Many failures. What motivates a dragonfly to act? One person found success with a lure that took ten years to culture in his lab.

I do believe that at some point, engineering and ecology can go together. I do believe that environmentalists would do better in the long run if they embraced engineers and the future, rather than let past failures completely cloud their judgement. Yes, it takes effort to succeed. And observational patience. Failing equipment. More to come. Yet, cameraman David W and I are on to something now that’s yielding some success. Containment is part of the solution. Understanding boundaries. And timing. And yesterday, a girl named Ella and her mom Jenny. Thanks, all. Today, perhaps another try…

Simply noticing and recording the disturbing trends of a degraded world is a virtue of science and all those practicing it. The process reveals a lot of information about the world around us. But information alone is not enough to mobilize action on the scale required to make that world a healthier and more desirable place for our children. A set of political relationships with this, that, or the other political party is not enough. Nor are relationships in the marketplace. Nor a broad appeal to beauty. In the video clip below, the writer Carl Safina speaks about the kind of relationship he believes is required.

Lately, in preparation for a behavioral sequence we hope to record, I have been studying the behavior of dragonflies (fig. 1 in our production logo). Our local dragonfly expert is Bob Grobe, who was generous enough to come over a few weeks back and share some of what he knows. The other night was a particularly rich one for dragonflies. The light was fading. I looked up and saw dozens on the patrol, rapidly seeking -then catching- mosquitoes. So many above that I could hear a faint roar, like a miniature air force. Before and after the use of DDT, dragonflies have long had the assignment of pest control. One of the species many tasks in its supposed 300 million year existence. I wonder what dragonflies did when they were the size of great black-backed gulls? Fossil records indicate that one had a 2.5 foot wide wingspan. That’s scary. Something fierce is within these amazing creatures.

As a visual person, I’m also astounded at the complexity and omniscience of their eyes. For starters, they see 360 degrees. 30,000 individual lens, all sending light information to the brain about the world around it. All around it. Is everything in focus? I wonder. And imagine the complexity of those brains, to integrate and process all that data… and then move from information to task.

My reading also reveals a curious story -source uncertain- that dragonflies were once believed to deter children from spending time outdoors. Apparently, they sewed shut the eyelids of the bold child who dared to sleep out under the stars.