I am, it almost goes without saying, pretty close to obsessed with odonates, and while many more-or-less retired guys my age would consider a day without golf or fishing (or shuffleboard or a nap... or, well, whatever...) a day wasted, I have a different take. For me, a warm-weather day without dragonflies is a day I don't want to see. Sometimes, of course, I'm out for a specific species, while on other treks, any species of ode will do. On recent days, the hunt has been for the specific, the quarry being that most ferocious... and large... of our local odes, the Dragonhunter. Uber-ode-man Dennis Paulson refers to Hagenius brevistylus as a "monster dragonfly" in his Eastern field guide to the odonates, and monster is about right, given that this beautifully colored beast is about four inches long and preys on anything flying its own size and smaller. Since I started keeping records about a decade ago, I have always found H. brevistylus beginning to terrify the local insects at the stream below the millpond dam towards the end of July, and this year, as I waded the area, was not exception. This one, which cooperated with the cameraman, is a female. She's ready to rumble. Watch out!