Not-so-dead Darner
leslie st spit - august 6, 2022
Another purposeful trip down to Leslie St Spit, this time for grove snails and, if I was lucky, some brown-headed cowbirds. I’d been after the latter for a while, I need some footage of them as part of a vide on red-winged blackbirds. I accidentally caught a few on a previous trip but I’ve yet to find them again, and this morning was no exception. Fortunately the snails more than made up for it, looking gorgeous in the early morning light.
I had a mind to maybe try for my perfect cormorant shot, of the flock heading out against the Toronto skyline, but once again I got waylaid and was too late to get to the right spot. Instead, I watched from afar as the astonishing sight of them heading out to fish passed me by. It’s remarkable every time the sheer number of cormorants pouring out of the colony and crossing the spit to open waters. This was my last opportunity to get footage for the current cormorant episodes, but I’m tempted to return on another weekend morning and high-tail it directly for the bridge with the best view, tunnel vision my way past any other distractions, just to finally lock down that shot.
But the strangest moment of the day was when something caught my eye on the path. It turned out to be a shadow darner (I think - dragonfly identification is a subtle art), and the biggest dragonfly I’ve ever seen. He looked absolutely pristine, but also not moving. I wanted to at least get him off the path and when I picked him up there was no sign of life. Not one to look a gift darner in the mouth, not even a dead one, I placed him on a blossom and took some footage. It was only when I had the macro lens on him that I could see he was still breathing. I’m not sure if he was just at death’s door, was paralyzed by the heat, or what. Not sure what would help him, I had to content myself with moving him to a hidden, shaded leaf and hoping he’d recover.