Dragonfly Festival

I volunteered for two hours at North Chagrin Nature Center.  Scientists, naturalists, and educators gathered from many points across the US for the event.  Guests were encouraged to grab a net and catch dragonflies.  The scientists were most hoping for green darners.  After years of trial and error, this is the first time they were using a new technology to track dragonflies, gluing tiny battery operated or solar bluetooth trackers to the top or bottom of dragonflies.   Each tracker has a number which then showed up every half hour on the software on the scientists' phone with the dragonfly's location.  A federal agriculture agent who tracks butterflies found that his software picked up the dragonfly data as well. Depending on the time of year when they’re born, some dragonflies migrate and others don’t. They can be sourced to a general birth location using isotope markers on their wings. There were interactive educational displays and crafts for all ages.

Clockwise:  Kyler (naturalist - couldn't resist the look on his face!  He caught 2!), blue dasher, amberwing, scientist attaching tracker to a green darner, slaty skimmer.

On the way there and back, quite a few large trees were still at the sides of roads, downed in the recent tornadoes.  I hadn't been that far north since the storms.  Wow.