When you spot your first Widow Skimmer dragonfly, it's easy to understand why birders and butterfly aficionados get hooked on odonates. Besides the undeniable fact that dragonflies and damselflies are abundant and relatively simple to observe—well, except for a group of typically treetop dwellers known collectively as Emeralds—many of the odes are perfectly gorgeous beasts. The Widow Skimmer, whose flight season is peaking right about now, is certainly among the most glorious of insects, but calling it by its common name is something of a misnomer. Many odes are sexually dimorphic, and this Widow is actually a Widower: the males are the prettier sex, with that exquisite white haze on the outer parts of the wings; the females lack the white, and their abdomens never turn that handsome blue. Neither, as near as I can tell, displays any sign of the depression characteristic of mourning.