Close watchers of our dams may have noticed the increasing dragonfly population with the winding down of summer. The view, standing on the Marina Vista bridge looking towards the footbridge, resembles a WWII fighter pilot movie. Many different kinds of dragonfly, zipping and chasing eachother about. Their numbers are sign of an increasingly healthy creek. When I went googling for species identification I was distracted by the fact that there is even one called a “beaverpond basket tail”. How do we get one of those? We need a dragonfly expert on staff, so if you want to brush up on your flyfacts, you might start here or here:
As you can see from this introductory guide from a Canadian lesson on creek health, an increase in dragonflies is sign of a moderate improvement. Better than some bugs but not as good as mayflies, which we should be hoping for. Fishermen understand well how popular mayflies are with trout, and they are considered the king of eco-bugs. Turns out their larvae makes a tastey morsel for dragonfly larvae, so maybe our increase is a sign of very good things to come. Hopefully we’ll be seeing mayflies soon, especially once the water gets moving again.
Need a little practice spotting your streamkeepers? Check out this delightful game from Queensland Waterwatch and help “Freckles” clean up his creek.
