Striped Meadowhawk

Striped Meadowhawks breed across most of the American west and are very common in the Pacific Northwest lowlands. Temperatures have been high and rain nonexistent—my flood control dragonfly haunt, which I visited on 15 July 2020, is becoming fairly murky. Males defend territories near water. Often females lay eggs onto dry ground, which hopefully will flood in the spring. Males sometimes dip their abdomens, perhaps showing females good places to lay (or drop) their eggs (Paulson 2019).