Last week we aired a show called “Love in the Time of Extinction.” Anne’s interview with Heather Swan made me choke up (as it did for many of you, we heard). Sure, there were emotions surrounding the extinction of insects but what struck me about the interview was her love. “Please, have the courage to love,” Heather pleads. Insects, who knew?
I live six stories up in an apartment on Lake Mendota in Madison, Wisconsin. I have a lovely balcony that overlooks the lake, and I spend as much time out there as I can. Madison has been experiencing a lot of severe storms lately. I can’t remember the last time I have seen this many tornado warnings, especially this late in the season. So, when they come, there I am with a cocktail and a cigarette watching the action. Sometimes the wind direction allows me to sit and relax, other times, well, my cigarette falls apart in the rain and I have to laugh.
The other day, as a storm ended (though still windy and raining), the skies around me filled with dragonflies. And I mean filled. The density was incredible. I can’t venture a guess as to how many. Ten thousand? One hundred thousand? They buzzed around quickly making those cool agile movements they do, seemingly stopping, then turning, 90 degrees, on a dime. Some were, I swear, flying upside down. And they were fast, so fast. I was in awe, mesmerized by it all.
I had a lot of questions as I watched them. But the biggie was, “What the hell were they doing there in the first place?”
So, I reached out to the University of Wisconsin-Madison school of Entomology for answers. I spoke to Emily Bick, assistant professor of entomology. She told me that insects get trapped in severe weather storm fronts and can travel many miles inside the storm. She said swarms of aphids have been carried by storms to Wisconsin from as far away as Texas. In other words, I got rained on by dragonflies from god knows where. Maybe the coolest thing I have heard in a long time.
The dragonfly swarm did not last long. She said their density and the depletion of a food source forces them to quickly spread out as they, as she put, look for “greener pastures.”
She asked me if I captured any that she could look at. I told her I was too caught up in the moment to do little more than say, “this is awesome” a million times. She told me, “Even as scientists it is good to remember to enjoy that moment before we investigate and document.”
It was a wonderful moment.
– Charles