Midsummer Migrant

I visited the Cowling Arboretum at about 4pm. Full sun following an early afternoon rain made the world a true-to-life sauna. Not just my body, but everything seemed to sweat: leaves, flowers, trees; rocks, rivers, sand. I felt the steamy dampness as if I'd just crawled out of the river and into an oven. A tropical mess.

I figures the one dragonfly encountered, a Spot-winged Glider, was a midsummer migrant, a visitor from the tropical south. Each year Minnesota welcomes a half-dozen or so species of migrating dragonflies. In the spring, Common Green Darners and Variegated Meadowhawks arrive shortly after the ice goes off the local ponds, usually in April. The Saddlebags and Rainpool Gliders arrive months later in June and July.

Also of note, noticed as I stewed in the steamy heat, were the American Bellflowers in bloom, a beautiful blue. The bright yellow flowers of the towering Cup Plants and the streamside Fringed Loosestrife. And a tiny, green-eyed Robber Fly found poised and vigilant at the pointed tip of a leaf.

Posted on July 22, 2017 01:26 AM by scottking