Case in point: Yesterday I hitched a ride into school with another student. It was a beautiful morning without a cloud in the sky (well, not quite but you get the picture). 4:30 pm and the sky becomes overcast. From my boss's office I hear over the radio a SEVERE WEATHER WARNING with that beeping alarm. I look outside. It is DARK. 4:45 pm I decide to leave a few minutes early to miss the storm. I arrived downstairs. It is pouring, hailing in some parts of Ithaca, and there are frequent flashes of lightning followed by thunder.
I am luckily rescued by a kind fellow vet student who not only picks me up but feeds me hot soup (folks, that is how you make a friend for life!)
This is the scene in the courtyard of the vet school during the torrential downpour:
The is the scene just a few hours later on my way home from dinner:
The most intriguing thing about the thunderstorm, though, was the giant dragonfly that landed by my foot. It was as big as my foot, which you probably can't tell from this hastily taken photo:
Here's another challenge for everyone-- can you identify this dragonfly? You think that would be easy, just look up giant dragonfly of New York state, but no, it's probably not that simple. I haven't actually tried this time but from previous brief forays into dragonfly identification it usually is something impossible to tell without a dead specimen under a microscope, like 'does it have three bristles on its front leg or four?'
How does that nursery rhyme go?
ReplyDeleteWhen she was good, she was very very but when she was bad she was horrid.
My guess is the Common Green Darner Dragonfly.
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