My boys had a lot of fun with this one. We'd noticed numerous dragonflies at the lake during our cattail challenge and wondered why. Coincidentally, our nature story the week before this challenge had answered our question. The story was about a bee who made fun of an "ugly bug." Imagine the bee's dismay when the ugly bug molted and became a beautiful dragonfly who could not only fly in all 4 directions but who also proved very helpful by eating mosquitoes and their eggs. We read some more about dragonflies in The Handbook of Nature Study, noting that they can easily be confused with damselflies. We also were interested to learn that while dragonflies can live for up to 5 years, most of this time is spent as an "ugly bug." The boys and I also watched this slideshow of the dragonfly lifecycle.
Then it was back to the lake! Beside the path there is a large meadow with a path mown through it. As we walked we saw quite a few dragonflies busy darting about:
Here is Pita Pocket trying to sneak up on one. We were able to tell that these were dragonflies because The Handbook of Nature Study states that when at rest damselflies will fold in their wings, while dragonflies continue to hold them out:
Once at the lake we sat on the dock admiring the dragonfly show. There were so many flying about that we couldn't get an accurate count. Our best estimate was about 20 dragonflies, ranging in color from reddish-brown to bright blue:
Afterwards the boys enjoyed wading in the water with the dragonflies buzzing all around them. They had fun trying to catch tiny minnows with their hands:
As for what happened after that, what can I say? My boys are most definately comfortable in nature!!
