Everything has been insanely slow this year, and while this is, no doubt, attributable to the insanely slow arrival of genuine spring, the tardiness, in the wake of numerous articles about the rapid decline in the number and diversity of insects, has me worried. Where the heck are such familiar and looked for species, chief among them the dragonflies? By now, my photo collection should have a number of odonates listed among the recent arrivals... but the database cupboard is pretty much bare. Spooky. Today, however, a bit of my anxiety was assuaged when a very cooperative Painted Skimmer came a-callin'. The newly minted male flitted from plant stem to plant stem, and once, when I was ready with the Sigma 100-400mm, perched obligingly on an almost-open iris bud. I was overjoyed... just overjoyed.