In any family, parents don't want to play favorites... but sometimes, despite the best parental efforts, the phrase, "Mom [or Dad] always liked you best," rings all too sadly true. So it is among the dragonflies. It's not a family of odonates that I've embraced as a favorite—it's more an individual species. True, I like lots of odes, but I think, if I had to choose, I really would name the Dragonhunter as my first love. Hagenius brevistylus is bold, brightly colored, and downright ferocious, since its diet often includes the members of its own order, the Odonata. Every midsummer, about the time that the Cardinal Flowers start blooming, I start haunting the stream below the millpond dam, which is where I typically spot the first Dragonhunters. Today, they premiered. You could almost feel the unease among the other aerial members of the community. As for me, you could almost feel the joy that the Dragonhunters are back.