Fallen Warrior

Today it was hot. After sleeping in by the time I crawled out of bed around eight thirty or so it was already in the mid seventies. Lenore and I had great breakfast out on the patio before we went and worked out together at the gym. Then we just puttered around the house until I went out and photographed some dragonflies late in the evening out on the Burris Ranch pond.



Did you know dragonflies are fierce? If you sit and watch them they are constantly battling for territories and mates. It seems like it never ends. Today I watched two dragonflies grapple in mid air. The smaller one was beaten rather badly. It had its wing ripped off and it was tossed downward onto its back into the pond. Where it struggled to rise its wings holding it to the waters surface like a suction cup.



I stretched out my tripod legs and rescued it from the water and then I placed it on a plant beside the pond to dry off. While its wings were drying I took the opportunity to photograph it from a variety of different angles. Its wings were battered and you could see a stub of what was left from the one that was torn off.



After about five minutes or so it took off and within less than a minute it got into the thick of battle and was tossed downward onto the surface of the pond clear out near the middle of the pond. Not long after a swallow came swooping through and plucked it from the pond never missing a beat in its flight. It was a fitting death for the battered warrior.

God bless,

chris