Oding

It often amazes me the quality of the articles in some community newspapers after reading the worthless drivel in big city ones. Maybe it is just that I am a country girl at heart and so the content is more appealing. At any rate I certainly found it enlightening to read about Oding the other day and was reminded of it on the way home today when I drove through dozens of these dainty creatures.

Oding is like birding only you watch Dragonflies and Damselflies instead of birds. The species is called Odonata, hence Oding. My dear friend Vanessa loved words and we often shared finding new ones. She would have appreciated this one.

I probably have read at some point the difference between Dragonflies and Damselflies but had forgotten so I appreciated refreshing my memory. In case yours needs refreshing, the main difference is that Damselflies have more slender abdomens and perch with their wings folded over their backs while Dragonflies set with wings horizontal over stouter abdomens. The Dragonflies have eyes that are closer together and are stronger fliers. Darlene located these photos and helped me add them so you can see for yourself. (By the way all of these photos came labeled as Dragonflies, but one is obviously a Damselfly. Can you tell which one it is?)












Oding is particularly popular in Texas where 225 out of the 457 known species in the world have been seen according to this article in the Sealy News. Some may think this to be all too close to watching the grass grow but the vision of myself sitting on a veranda, sipping iced tea while listening to the cicadas buzzing and watching the dragons and damsels darting around sounds quite peaceful indeed. I would invite Darlene to join me but I fear I have scared her off with updates on the heat and mosquitoes.