Nature Notes #3

I have not been as diligent with the Nature Notes series as I had hoped, or perhaps I haven't felt the need for any filler posts because there's been plenty of wildlifey happenings to report? Either way, it's time for episode 3.

Apparently, one of my superpowers is 'not thinking things through', which in the lexicon of such attributes isn't perhaps the one most likely to lead to a lucrative movie franchise. Although the comedic opportunities could be huge...

So if we can agree that the main aim of the series is to highlight the meshing of natural songs or calls with human music, and also considering that my main wildlife focus is the group of insects comprising dragonflies and damselflies, then I have a bit of a dilemma.

Actually, not a bit of a dilemma... the whole dilemma, in its entirety and without the slightest scuff. Dragonflies do not make any vocal utterings as far as I know, what with 80% of their brain space being taken up with processing the visual input from those huge eyes, and the other 20% being mainly concerned with looking so utterly and gorgeously cool. Therefore, the inclusion of my favourite creatures in an aural series of my own devising is rather unlikely and, on the face of it, a spectacular own goal.

But not so fast. We can certainly hear the noises of dragonflies; the clatter of their wings against vegetation or the clashing of their wings in territorial combat, a sound not unlike the arcing of an electrical spark. However, I would suggest that these sounds (whilst very useful as signs of a dragonfly's whereabouts) are, at best, a percussive backing track, rather than anything more tuneful. So I was mightily relieved to discover a song by Eddi Reader with lyrics by Boo Hewerdine which is actually called 'Dragonflies'.

Dragonflies

A lost summer's day, a lifetime away
What do you find
Slow turning sun, with somewhere to run
On your mind
Not the flash that you saw
That was gone in the wink of an eye
As soon as we're here, we disappear, like dragonflies.

Their miracle blue can never tell you
How it came to be
Each different kind, accidental designed
Before you and me
And we ask the whole of our lives
Maybe there's no why
As soon as we're here, we disappear, like dragonflies.

How can something so fragile leave us helpless
We all feel helpless once in a while
How can something so fragile leave us humble
We all need humble once in a while.

And now nature can sing such beautiful wings
Did you think of this
That each of us know in our hearts we must go
And that's what beauty is
And just as the dream you were in
Dissolved in the morning sky
As soon as we're here, we disappear, like dragonflies.

How can something so fragile leave us helpless
We all feel helpless once in a while
How can something so fragile leave us humble
We all feel humble once in a while.

And now nature can sing such beautiful wings
Did you think of this
That each of us know in our hearts we must go
And that's what beauty is
And just as the dream you were in dissolved in the morning sky
As soon as we're here, we disappear, like dragonflies.

These words nicely reference the 350 million year ancientness of the Order Odonata, whilst at the same time acknowledging the fleeting two month existence of an adult dragonfly. Sweet.