Shouldn't be long now. Had a half a dozen dragonflies cruising the parking lot when I got home this evening. Someone overhearing the neighborhood residents might think we're awaiting a liberating army rather than some oversized flying insects, but in a way, those insects are liberators. Once the dragonfly fleets make their way uphill, the local mosquito population falls dramatically. Dragonflies and their cousins, the generally smaller but similar damselflies, catch and consume quantities of flying pests.
Dragonflies sit with their wings spread out horizontally.
Because my knowledge of dragonflies and their kin might be contaminated by such fictions learned in childhood, I checked out some facts before writing this. The highly readable and informative book The Nature of Southeast Alaska has a brief discussion of dragonfly natural history, so I used it to verify my memory. A book about Southeastern's natural attributes was a likely source of information on dragonflies and their kin because, for most of their lives, they are truly aquatic insects. The watery realm of southeastern Alaska provides some wonderful habitat for these creatures. Larval dragonflies are the water-dwelling form.