Dragonfly

On a recent nature walk Caleb found a dead dragonfly laying on the ground near a pond we were visiting. What an excited little boyo he was! We put the dragonfly in a ziplock bag (never leave home without ziplocks, you never know when you'll need to collect something) and took the dragonfly home to investigate further.

First we read a little about dragonflies in two of our nature id guides: "Peterson's First Guide to Insects of North America" and "Caterpillars, Bugs and Butterflies a Take Along Guide." This helped us to know specific things to look for when we were observing our dragonfly.

Here is Caleb taking a closer look at the dragonfly's eyes. Did you know that a dragonfly's eyes cover most of its head? They are also the most powerful eyes of any insect.

Caleb is flying like a dragonfly. Most dragonflies catch their food on the fly in a little basket that they make from their six legs.

Our dragonfly was a Green Darner. They are one of the fastest dragonflies.

Caleb then drew our dragonfly in his nature journal and dictated to me what to write.

Look, Caleb has a giant dragonfly eye!!