A hint of Halloween
Halloween Pennant dragonfly
Another hot, but reasonably dry, day—genuine summer weather. After I finished mowing the lawn, I rewarded myself with the trip to the lake for a swim, but I took a slight detour before I got there: a quick walk along the edge of a swamp en route. On many of the spikes of timothy grass and various species of sedge were small flags, pennants actually, that were blowing in the wind but clinging to their natural flagpoles. The flags, I discovered, were Halloween Pennant dragonflies. The pennant part of the common name comes from their ability to behave like small flags; the Halloween part refers to their fall-like colors. I'd like to think of them as harbingers of cooler weather, but it's too early to start looking for signs of autumn.