So I have about four days left to this summer semester. I don’t have much to do now; most of my time I spend studying, reading or surfing the internet. When I do feel like going outside into the Carolina heat, I’ve taken to walking down to my favorite place on campus: the small koi pond outside of the music building.
Although it was probably 100 degrees outside today, I walked down to the pond and sat on one of the rock slabs that surround it. There was a lot of activity going on above the pond. About six dragonflies were hovering and diving above the surface of the water. I love dragonflies; I think they are one of the coolest insects, so I was really enjoying this chance to see them so close. The dragonflies were chasing each other all around the little pond, never straying too far from it. After a while I noticed that there was a little turf war going on over the water. One dragonfly, the largest of the bunch (I call him Boss), was chasing out all of the other dragonflies that attempted to land on any of the lily pads that were growing in the pond. Boss would chase them to the edge of the pond and then turn around and land on a pad and wait for them to return. It was a lot of fun to watch, but I noticed that Boss wasn’t making any progress against the other dragonflies. He’d chase them out and they’d come right back in, not a second later. This had been going on for a while now and I couldn’t figure out what compelled Boss to defend his pond so viciously. He was very small fly and, comparatively, this was a very big pond. It seemed a little pointless. I moved myself right to the edge of the pond without disturbing the mini dogfights going on, and extended my hand out over the water. After a minute one of the other dragonflies landed on one of my fingers and sat there catching her breath. Boss flew by and didn’t seem to pay attention to her. She flew off for a second and then came right back. Boss didn’t seem to notice her when she was on my finger, even though she was still over his pond, and I think she caught on to that fact. I was able to get a good look at her as she sat on my hand. Dragonflies are beautiful creatures when you get to see them up close. She stayed on my hand for quite a while, both of us silently watching Boss’s losing battle. She probably was sitting there thinking about how pointless it all was, fighting over the koi pond. Well, probably not, but I like to think she was. After a while Boss did notice her and flew right up in front of her, his large insect eyes probably a centimeter away from hers. She didn’t even flinch. She just stared at him, daring him to do something. This seemed to tick him off, and he flew up alongside her and rammed his wings into hers. And just like that, my dragonfly was pulled back into the fray. I left shortly after that, the heat getting to be a little too much. But I’d have to say that was the highlight of my day, watching those dragonflies.
This story has no moral to it. I’m not going to end this post with a line like “Some days I feel like a dragonfly fighting over a koi pond,” or something like that. There are just times when you’re observing nature and you get to see something you normally don’t get to see every day. So I thought I’d write about it.
I’m going to head back there tomorrow. See how Boss is getting on.
