Last Autumn meadowhawk

A week ago, when the frosts hit, I reported that I thought I'd seen the last of the meadowhawks for this odonate year. But these diminutive dragonflies turn out to be tougher and more hardy than I gave them credit for. According to my guidebooks, they're probably the last ode to be flying in autumn, and they may even manage to keep going until mid-November. While I don't know how they kept out of harm's way when the ground wore a considerable coat of silver recently, at least a few of them came through the insult. Today, the temperature warmed into the low 60s, and as I walked the Henne Refuge, I spotted a number of Autumn Meadowhawks on the leaves and the boardwalk. I was pretty surprised they were still around, and in the spirit of Mark Twain's "reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated," I thought it important to correct my own "greatly exaggerated" report last week on the demise of the adults of this species. The meadowhawks continue to fly, but for how long we'll just have to see.