After the storm, the world here was basically one grimy gray-brown color. All the flowers were killed. One of the things I missed in those first weeks, besides food, water, air conditioning, phone service, and air that didn't reek of death, was all the color. However, mobs of dragonflies descended, flickering everywhere across the debris. If you've ever seen that movie "Dragonfly" you will understand how interesting this was to me.
Today's breakfast is in rememberance of the flowers I missed and the dragonflies who came to comfort me.
Wow, that must have been freaky on so many levels. We had some very serious hail storms in Okla this spring, along with Tornadoes. This isn't Katrina, but I understand about the flowers. The hail, piled 3 inches deep in some areas ranging from pea sized to golf ball sized in my immediate area, larger in other places. And it knocked the blooms off of just about everything. I probably noticed more than others at that time, because I photograph bees and other pollinators. Dragonflies are definitely a symbol of hope and resiliance. They capture mosquitoes and other biting flies, by making baskets with their legs and swooping down on them. They are impressive predators. The colors they come in are amazing, all jewel tones in greens, turquoise, stripes and these large deep hued eyes. I see some clay colored ones too out here. They look like art, like someone sculpted a dragonfly and forgot to paint it.
ReplyDeleteBees!! That is so cool! I'd love to see some photos.
ReplyDeleteWe had so so many dragonflies after the storm...
Okay so a lot of these photos are mislabled right now but, if you go to this site, you can see some of my photographs. I was in the midst of correcting the labels on the photos, but then BP happened and I started a whole new blog and have been at that almost exclusively between school and chores. http://oklapollinators.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteThe Butterflies should be right on though. There is more material to work with to identify them. But the bees and the bee mimics, not so much, but the pictures are mostly good.
One of the things that I worried about was the effect that the Aerosolized Corexit/oil crap would have on feral and domestic bee populations out there. When I read from locals that on the beaches there are no flies, no mosquitoes and no fleas on the dogs, that is scary. The 2-Butoxyethanol is a pesticide, and it is used to kill ants {in the Hymenoptera family] which includes bees and wasps, it is used to control flies and is a big ingredient for Terminix. That is scary to me. Insects are the Plankton of our Terrestrial Food Web. They pollinate our food, wild food for wild animals, they are both predator and prey themselves. IF we loose them your land based food web, even agriculture could collapse as you know it. That's why Fish and Wildlife confiscated Dr Hooper-Buis samples, she is an entomologist in the Gulf. They were afraid she would find out what we all suspect. :(
Your dragon flies won't survive that stuff. But they might make a come back next year.
Sorry to double post: This other post might explain it a bit better. There are links to informative sites so you can read what I have come up with, but also make up your own mind.
ReplyDeletehttp://oilybeauhunk.blogspot.com/2010/08/why-are-some-people-referring-to.html