Flame Skimmer Dragonfly by Monkeystyle3000 on Creative Commons
When the heat of August becomes oppressive, I head down to the river to cool off. There's a sweet little swimming hole down there and a cool breeze in the afternoons.
Our section of the Nacimiento River is a different place in the summer than it is during the flood stage of January. The sycamores and willows that were submerged halfway underwater last winter are now high and dry on a blistering bed of rock and sand. A killdeer forages through the rocks as I approach. These birds will feign injury, hobbling along with a bent wing to lure predators away from their nests. This one ignores me completely.
Fed by the fertile soil at the river's edge, a lush stand of mugwort and sweet clover hosts swarms of bees and pierid and swallowtail butterflies. This time of year, the rough cocklebur (Xanthium strumarium) is full of nasty seedpods. If you take your dog through, be ready to pull the large burrs out of their fur.
The stagnant pools formed as the river recedes still hold pollywogs even at this late date. The pools evaporate quickly, and I used to worry about the fate of these latecomers. It turns out that tadpoles can sense dropping water and speed up their metamorphosis into frogs.
Sending their roots into the shallow water, sedges and cattails provide launching pads for dragonflies and damselflies. Like airborne jewels, bluet damselflies and flame-colored dragonflies whirl with blinding speed over the surface of the water. You can tell dragonflies and damselflies apart by the way they hold their wings. Dragonflies rest with their wings out flat to the sides, while damselflies fold their wings back along their body.
The flame skimmer dragonfly (Libellula saturata), also known as the firecracker skimmer due to its bright orangey-red color, is a common sight in any location where warm water is found. Perching on rocks or blades of grass, they launch out to catch their prey. Their large compound eyes and two sets of maneuverable wings make them deadly predators. Flame skimmers are great for pest control, eating mosquitoes, flies, moths, mayflies, and flying ants.
Male flame skimmers are the colorful ones. They are very territorial, and if you watch closely, you'll catch them engaging in aerial battles. Females are smaller and lighter in color. They lay their eggs in warm water, dipping their abdomen in the water to release the eggs.
Both dragonflies and damsels share ancient ancestors. Fossils found from before the dinosaurs have been found with a 30-inch wing span. These were the largest insects ever known on Earth.
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