Ian Paulsen forwarded Mike's message to tweeters to me, and I'll take this
opportunity to share with the entire group (I apologize if bird people are
getting tired of hearing about dragonflies).

>Date: Fri, 30 Jul 1999 16:54:22 -0700
>From: Mike Patterson <mpatters at oregonvos.net>
>To: tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
>Subject: RFI: Dragonfly behavior
>
>Now that there is a decent photoguide, I'm trying to learn my dragonflies.
>
>I was at the Neawanna Wetland, mostly watching EIGHT-SPOTTED SKIMMERS
>defend their territories and I happened to notice an interesting behavior
>in what I'm calling a CARDINAL MEADOWHAWK. It was sitting on an exposed
>perch with its wing held about 20? below horizontal. Periodically, it would
>fly out 50 or 60 cm and then fly back to its perch and resume a wings down
>posture. It also would its position on the perch about 90? right or left
>fairly regularly. I would be inclined to call this flycatching in the
>avian sense. It is certainly not cruising in the way I normally associate
>dragonfly foraging.
>
>Was it flycatching?

Yes, it was presumably flycatching. Most (but not all) species of skimmers
and clubtails feed in that way, unlike members of the darner and emerald
families, which feed while cruising in flight. It's a very nice dichotomy
in dragonflies. Damselflies also show two foraging modes, either by
flycatching from a perch (jewelwings, spreadwings, and dancers) or by
gleaning from vegetation while in flight (most pond damsels). So they
utilize 3 of the 4 foraging modes possible to them, perched predator taking
prey in flight (flycatcher), predator and prey in flight (swallow), and
predator in flight taking stationary prey (kinglet). The fourth, with both
predator and prey on the substrate (warbler), doesn't seem to occur, as
dragonflies presumably can't perch and grab prey with their legs at the
same time!

Dennis Paulson, Director phone 253-756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax 253-756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416
http://www.ups.edu/biology/museum/museum.html