my friend the dragon fly

we netted for bats at a beautiful place called kakisa last week. after an emergency trip to hay river to replace a tire i had blown i figured we may as well get some data out of the trip, so off to kakisa we went. it was stormy and beautiful and we caught a plethora of bats allowing me to assess their reproductive condition and providing me with a nice comparison population to our own salt river colony. the most interesting part of the night however, was a little friend i picked up along the way.

bees and moths often get caught in our nets, and after a little shaking are usually able to fly free. dragon flies however, have a much more difficult time with their four wings and sticky bodies. so as we put our nets up, low and behold, a dragon fly decided it would like to pass through the netted zone.

it took about five minute to get it out and despite being fairly cooperative, like i said, they're tricky ones when dealing with wings caught in fine holes in a finely threaded net. yet, five minutes later i had it free. i expected it would fly off right away as it was getting dark and its quite rare to see them out once the sun has gone down. but it seems like my jacket sleeve was a comfortable place to hang out for a while, so i let him hitch a ride and i went about doing my work.

when the first bat was caught and i went running up to release it, the dragon fly hung on. as i weighed and measured all seventeen of the female little brown bats we caught, the dragon fly hung on. as we took down the nets and packed up our gear, the dragon fly hung on. as i attempted to pick it up and place it on a tree for the night, the dragon fly hung on. it seems like the little dragon fly enjoyed playing bat researcher for the evening and didn't quite want to let go. i finally got it onto a tree as the thought of sleeping with it on my arm wasn't the most appealing, but i'm not going to lie, i thoroughly enjoyed the extra bit of company throughout the batting work that evening. i can definitely think of worse things to have hanging off my arm for a night.